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![Rousseff got 37 per cent of the votes in the lead up to the Oct. 5 elections [gov.br]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/BxsRuvCIMAABzmF.jpg)
Rousseff got 37 per cent of the votes in the lead up to the Oct. 5 elections [gov.br]
The largest country in South America goes for presidential polls on October 5. Brazil’s economy grew 0.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2014, official statistics show
Rousseff got 37 per cent of the votes in the lead up to the elections, up 1 percentage point from the previous poll, according to the opinion poll by Datafolha.
Her closest rival, Socialist Party candidate Marina Silva, slipped from 33 per cent to 30 per cent in voter support. The polls also detected a significant shift in the electoral landscape in terms of an increased rejection rate for Silva as president. Silva earlier boasted of the lowest rejection rate among the three main candidates. The latest poll showed Silva has a rejection rate of 22 per cent to Rousseff’s 33 per cent.
Third-placed candidate, Aecio Neves of Brazilian Social Democratic party, garnered 17 per cent of the votes, up 2 percentage points.
A handful of other minor candidates together account for 4 per cent of the votes, while 7 per cent of respondents say they are undecided and 6 per cent plan to vote blank.
No candidate is expected to garner the more than 50 per cent of the votes needed to win the first round, making a runoff likely.
High inflation and sluggish growth figures of recent years have cast a shadow over Rousseff’s re-election bid.
In the case of a runoff, the poll shows Rousseff and Silva are head to head, with 44 per cent to 46 per cent, the gap shrinking from the previous poll’s 43 per cent to 47 per cent.
Due to the poll’s two-point margin of error, the figures represent a statistical tie.
The Datafolha poll, conducted on September 17-18, queried 5,340 people in 265 towns across Brazil.
The winner of the Presidential polls would face massive challenges to bring growth back to the heyday of above 4 per cent annually that made Latin American’s largest economy an investor favorite.
Source: Agencies
