Brazil: Brazilian president Luiz In‡cio Lula da Silva will win a second term in office by a wide margin in the general election in October, a poll showed yesterday.
The poll, carried out by the Ibope Institute for the National Industry Confederation, showed that his government's popularity had recovered from a corruption scandal last year that had severely damaged its standing.
Voting takes place on October 1st and campaigning starts on July 6th. The poll said Mr Lula would take 48 per cent of the vote against 19 per cent for Geraldo Alckmin of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party in the first round. Counting blank responses, Mr Lula's margin would give the majority needed to avoid a run-off.
The approval rating for the government increased to 44 per cent from 38 per cent in March and disapproval fell to 19 per cent from 22 per cent, marking a return to the margin before the ruling Workers' Party was accused of vote-buying and illegal campaign funding.-