SAO PAULO - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva continues to lead Senator Flavio Bolsonaro ahead of the October election, although the right-wing challenger has narrowed the gap by one percentage point, a change within the error margin, a Datafolha poll showed on Friday.
In a simulated second-round runoff, Lula would receive 47% of the vote against Bolsonaro's 43%, according to Datafolha, which has an error margin of two percentage points. In July, Lula led Senator Bolsonaro, son of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, by 48% to 43%.
In a first-round scenario, Lula leads with 39% of the votes, followed by Bolsonaro (33%), Ronaldo Caiado (5%), Renan Santos (4%), and Romeu Zema (3%).
If no candidate wins more than 50% of valid votes in the first round, the two frontrunners advance to a runoff, which has happened in every presidential election since 2002.
Lula's approval rating fell to 47%, Datafolha showed, from 49% in July, while his disapproval rate rose to 50% from 48%.
This was the first Datafolha poll released since the start of the official campaign, when candidates are legally allowed to actively seek votes.
It was also the first Datafolha poll after Brazil's Supreme Court authorised Federal Police to investigate Lula's eldest son on suspicion of illicit business dealings involving the federal government.
Senator Bolsonaro saw his poll numbers fall after the revelation in May that he asked a now-jailed banker to finance a film about his father.
Datafolha surveyed 2,058 people starting on August 18.
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