Brazilians Keep Lula as Favorite 16 Days Before the Elections

On Thursday, published a survey showing that 45 percent of Brazilians remain firmly behind the Workers' Party (PT) candidate Lula da Silva in his race for the Brazilian presidency.

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With less than three weeks to go before the Oct. 2 elections, the leftist leader maintains a 12-point lead over President Jair Bolsonaro, who fell in voting preferences from 34 percent to 33 percent between Sept. 9 and Sept. 15.

Behind Lula and Bolsonaro is the Democratic Labor Party (PDT) candidate Ciro Gomes, whose voting intentions rose from 7 percent to 8 percent. Senator Simone Tebet, who is a member of the right-wing Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), is in fourth position with 5 percent.

The results of the Datafolha poll, which are considered the most reliable in the country, also forecast that Lula da Silva would achieve 54 percent of the valid votes if there were a second round. Bolsonaro, on the other hand, would not exceed 38 percent. 

For this survey, which has a margin of error of two percentage points, the Brazilian company interviewed 5,926 citizens in 300 municipalities.

Lula da Silva's tweet reads: "Thank you Montes Claros! It is with this climate of hope that I say goodbye to Minas Gerais and head to Porto Alegre, where we will do a great act tonight. Brazil of hope."

Bolsonaro's ongoing decline in electoral preferences would seem to be related to the loss of support among Christians and the hate speech that he and his supporters profess. In this regard, for example, the recent verbal attacks by a right-wing lawmaker against journalist Vera Magalhaes provoked rejection from various political parties.

"Bolsonanarism needs gender-based violence like a vampire needs blood. These are two pillars of the society that Bolsonaristas want to strengthen," the UOL columnist Milly Lacombe wrote on Friday.

"In the Bolsonarist society, men carry guns, women bow down. Men rule, women obey... forests turn to dust... Black people don't whistle much, and LGBTQ people can die because they're not needed," she added.