Brazil election: Dilma Rousseff favourite according to polls
Brazilians head to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president. Incumbent Dilma Rousseff will face Aécio Neves of the centrist Brazilian Social Democracy party in a runoff vote. According to the latest polls, Dilma has edged just ahead
More than 130 million Brazilians will head to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president.
Incumbent Dilma Rousseff faces Aécio Neves of the centrist Brazilian Social Democracy party in a runoff vote. In the first round Dilma won 41.4% of the vote, with Neves taking 33.5%. The scale of the Neves result was particularly surprising, as it was noticeably higher than pre-election polls were showing.
Neves took his surge into the first few weeks of the II round campaign, but president Dilma has since edged ahead:
Rousseff received a further boost in the closing days of the campaign, with unemployment dropping to 4.9%.
Three weeks ago, Rousseff’s support was highest in the poorer states, the north east and north of the country where the Workers’ Party core base is strongest, it will be where socialist candidate Marina Silva’s first round votes go in highly populated states like Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco - Dilma won both in 2010 - and São Paulo that may end up being the decisive factor.
Marina Silva has endorsed Neves. Nevertheless the president goes into Sunday’s vote as the favourite, but as the gap from Neves is still so close (and Brazilian polls so volatile), the final debate between contenders may still provide surprises.
Before the final I round debate, Marina Silva was set for the runoff vote according to polls, and at one point she was even leading the race. Then figures released on the Saturday - and indeed the result the following day - showed Neves overtaking Silva.
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