Lula leads Bolsonaro by 14 points ahead of Brazil vote -Datafolha poll

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva leads President Jair Bolsonaro by 14 points, a poll released on Thursday showed, with the far-right incumbent having lost momentum against his leftist rival as the Oct. 2 presidential election looms.

The survey by Datafolha showed Lula with 48% of voter support versus 34% for Bolsonaro in the election’s first round, compared with 47% and 33%, respectively, in the previous poll.

Excluding blank and null ballots, Lula was seen winning 50% of the votes, while Bolsonaro had 36%. If Lula reaches 50% plus one vote in the first round, he will win the election outright and avoid a second round.

In the event of a second-round run-off on Oct. 30, Lula would garner the support of 54% of voters versus 39% for Bolsonaro, a 15-point advantage, according to the poll, down from 16 points a week ago.

Bolsonaro’s approval rating edged down to 31%, compared to 32% one week ago; still above the 22% he held in December, after which his popularity ticked up thanks to welfare programs and measures to tackle inflation.

His disapproval came in at 44%, according to the poll, the same rate as a week ago but down from the 53% seen in December.

Datafolha conducted 6,800 in-person interviews between Sept. 27-29. The poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points up or down.

(Reporting by Carolina Pulice and Alexandre Caverni; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sandra Maler)