Brazil's former President and presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gestures at Alexandre de Moraes' Inauguration ceremony as the new president of the Superior Electoral Court in Brasilia, Brazil August 16, 2022.REUTERS/Adriano Machado
SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva remains the front-runner to win Brazil's presidential election in October, a poll of voter support showed on Thursday, although incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro is gaining ground.
Lula received 47% voter support versus Bolsonaro's 32% in the latest survey by pollster Datafolha, compared with 47% and 29% respectively in July.
In a potential second-round runoff between the two candidates, Lula would return to office with 54% of the votes against Bolsonaro's 37%, the poll showed.
Lula, a leftist candidate and a former Brazilian president, has seen his advantage in the runoff shrink each month from the 29-point lead he had in December.
The Datafolha poll also showed that 51% of the people polled claim they would never vote for Bolsonaro, 3 percentage points below last month, while Lula's rejection went up by 1 percentage point to 37%.
Bolsonaro has attempted to lure voters in recent months by passing a major spending package that included a welfare program for poor Brazilians and measures to tackle fuel prices, which in turn has helped inflation rates begin to slow.
His approval rate went up to 30% in August, from 28% in July, according to the poll. Meanwhile, 43% of those interviewed said they disapproved of the far right leader's government, against the 45% recorded last month.
Datafolha interviewed 5,744 Brazilians of voting age between Tuesday and Thursday. The poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
(Reporting by Peter Frontini; editing by Richard Pullin and Rosalba O'Brien)
