Brazil presidential candidates locked in technical tie in new poll

Sao Paulo, Sep 16 (IANS/EFE) A new poll of voter intentions for next month's Brazilian presidential elections has revealed a technical tie between President Dilma Rousseff, who is running for reelection, and Socialist candidate Marina Silva in the second round.

Rousseff, of the Workers' Party (PT), would win in the first round with 36 percent of voter support, followed by Silva with 27 percent and Aecio Neves, of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), with 15 percent, according to a Vox Populi poll released Monday.

A poll conducted last week by the polling firm threw up the same results for Rousseff and Neves while voter support for the environmentalist Silva was one point more at 28 percen.

Monday's survey results showed a slight decrease for Silva, a former environment minister, who enjoyed a dramatic rise in the polls last month after being announced as the Brazilian Socialist Party's replacement candidate for Eduardo Campos, a former governor of Pernambuco, who died in a plane crash Aug 13.

In a likely second-round runoff in case none of the candidates secure half plus one of the valid votes or more than all his/her rivals together, Silva would win with 42 percent of the votes, against 41 percent for Rousseff, the same difference as the poll released last week.

In the event that the second round would be decided between Rousseff and Neves, the poll shows that the current head of state would win with 47 percent of the votes against the social democratic Neves with 36 percent.

In the earlier poll, Rousseff got 44 percent of voter support and Neves 36 percent.

The poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points, surveyed 2,000 voters Saturday and Sunday.

--IANS/EFE

ab/vm