Brazil Election Poll Shows Dilma Rousseff Holding Ground Against Silva

Brasilia: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is holding her ground against opposition candidate Marina Silva and is statistically tied with her rival in a likely runoff in the October election, a new poll showed on Friday.

Rousseff reduced Silva's lead in the expected second-round runoff to just one percentage point, a statistical tie since it is within the margin of error of the survey conducted by polling institute Ibope. Silva had a seven-point advantage in an earlier poll last week.
In first-round voting, scheduled for Oct. 5, Rousseff has 39 percent voter support and Silva 31 percent, compared with 37 percent for Rousseff and 33 percent for Silva in the previous Ibope poll. Support for centrist candidate Aecio Neves was unchanged at 15 percent.

The Rousseff administration's approval rating has risen to 38 percent from 36 percent in the earlier poll.

Ibope surveyed 2,002 respondents nationwide between Sept 5-8. The poll commissioned by the national industry lobby group CNI has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.