Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff saw her lead narrow less than three months before elections in a Datafolha poll that for the first time shows no clear winner in a runoff.
Rousseff leads with 44 percent of the vote in a second round against candidate Aecio Neves, who would get 40 percent, according to the July 15-16 poll published in the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo. The gap of four percentage points falls within the margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points. The previous poll, conducted July 1-2, showed Rousseff winning the runoff with 46 percent against Neves’s 39 percent.
Rousseff officially began her campaign for re-election last week as Brazil hosted the final games of a World Cup that was marred by the national team’s back-to-back losses to Germany and Holland. The defeat was offset by FIFA’s praise for Brazil’s organization of the soccer tournament, which the governing body called the best ever.
Rousseff in the first round on Oct. 5 has 36 percent of voter support in the survey that pits her against other candidates, down from 38 percent earlier this month. Neves, a member of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, saw his backing remain unchanged at 20 percent while Eduardo Campos of the Brazilian Socialist Party had 8 percent, according to the survey of 5,337 people.
The incumbent may not have the backing needed to avoid a runoff on Oct. 26, which occurs if a candidate fails to garner more votes than all other candidates combined.
Rousseff has sought to separate the organization of the World Cup from her team’s performance, saying Brazil proved wrong the pessimists who thought her country wouldn’t have the stadiums, airports and transportation ready for the 64-game tourney.
Brazil hosted “a party that I’m sure is one of the most beautiful in the world,” Rousseff told reporters July 14. “We did have our problem with the game against Germany, however, I believe that everything in life is about knowing how to overcome.”
Brazil’s historic defeat set off more speculation about Rousseff’s chances of winning re-election in the soccer-obsessed country. The Ibovespa surged 1.8 percent the first day of trading after Brazil lost to Germany 7-1, the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange index’s best performance in more than four weeks.
Analysts surveyed weekly by the central bank have cut their 2014 economic growth forecast in half since December while inflation last month breached the official target range for the first time in a year.
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