Lula’s lead widens slightly three days from Brazil runoff: poll

Leftist challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s lead over far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro has widened slightly three days from Brazil’s polarizing presidential runoff election, according to a poll published Thursday.

Lula has 53 percent voter support to 47 percent for Bolsonaro, according to the poll from the Datafolha institute — up from a four-point gap (52 percent to 48 percent) the previous week.

The figures exclude voters who plan to cast blank or spoiled ballots — five percent of respondents, Datafolha estimates. Undecided voters represented just two percent.

The margin of error for the poll, which was based on interviews with 4,580 people from Tuesday to Thursday, was plus or minus two percentage points.

Lula, the charismatic but tarnished ex-president who led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, won the first round of the election on October 2 with 48 percent of the vote, to 43 percent for former army captain Bolsonaro.

The candidates will face off in a final debate Friday night.

Bolsonaro and his allies have attacked polling firms, accusing them of bias.

He outperformed pollsters’ expectations in the first round, triumphantly boasting afterwards: “We beat the lie.”

Lula, who turned 77 Thursday, leads among women (52 percent), the poor and working-class (61 percent), and Catholics (55 percent), according to Datafolha.

Bolsonaro, 67, leads among evangelical Christians (62 percent) and wealthier voters (59 percent).