Brazilian election: Poll shows Dilma has 17-point lead over Serra

Dilma Rousseff

[Translation of an article from Jornal de Brasilia for August 21.]

A poll by the Datafolha Polling Institute sponsored by the newspaper Folha de São Paulo and released on Saturday, August 21, shows the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT – Workers’ Party) candidate for the presidency Dilma Rousseff leading with 47 percent of the intended votes. The Partido da Social Democracia Brasiliera (PSDB – Brazilian Social Democratic Party) candidate, José Serra, is in second place with 30 percent. Marina Silva of the Partido Verde (PV – Green Party) holds third place with nine percent, while none of the remaining candidates received one percent of voters’ preferences. Voters who have not decided how they will vote or who did not respond totalled eight percent, and blank or null votes, four percent.

This is the first Datafolha poll conducted since radio and television campaigning began. Those who report they have seen campaign ads at least once make up 34 percent of those interviewed…

If only valid votes are taken into account, the poll numbers indicate that the PT cantidate would win the election on the first vote. In a previous Datafolha poll released on August 13, Dilma received 41 percent of the intended votes, Serra had 33 percent and Marina Silva ten percent.

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2 Responses to “Brazilian election: Poll shows Dilma has 17-point lead over Serra”

  1. Mona Mehdy Says:
    August 23rd, 2010 at 11:50 am

    Thank you, David. This is very interesting. I do not know enough about Rousseff to say if she will carry on in the spirit of Lula but I hope she is better than Serra. Teachers in Sao Paulo state where Serra is governor held a strike this year as they are paid absolutely atrocious salaries. Serra was completely resistant to improving the public education teacher salaries and I understand from my Brazilian friends that the teachers made no advance at all. This just continues a big dichotomy in Brazil wherein the public education system is neglected and used by poor families while the wealthier Brazilians send their kids to private schools, continuing the economic stratification strongly into adulthood.

  2. david Says:
    August 23rd, 2010 at 6:22 pm

    Rousseff’s popularity seems to be based partly on her being part of the Lula administration and on the likelihood she will continue in the same vein, but also on her own strengths, which are considerable. She is usually described as philosophically to the left of Lula, although who knows how that might translate into practical politics once she’s in office. I have the impression many Brazilians are hoping for a shift to the left, away from Lula’s neoliberal tendencies.