Brazil’s presidential race narrows to a 0.6-point gap — Lula makes a strong late surge

[Financial News] With about a week to go before the presidential runoff, leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is seeking a fourth term overall, is mounting a strong late surge to catch up with right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.
A poll by BTG and Nexus released on the 19th (local time) found President Lula at 49.7% support, in a close race within the margin of error (±2.0 percentage points) with Bolsonaro, who received 50.3%. It was the narrowest gap among polls conducted since the first round of the presidential election on the 4th. The same poll showed a 3.2-point gap last week.
The shrinking gap in support between the two candidates was also evident in other polls. In an AtlasIntel poll released that day, Lula stood at 48.9% and Bolsonaro at 51.1%. Compared with the 6-point gap between the candidates in the same poll a week earlier, the difference had narrowed by 3.8 points in just one week.
Political circles and markets believe that various populist pledges and cash aid measures put forward by Lula’s camp, along with the Senate’s passage of a “five-day workweek bill” aimed at shortening working hours, have driven the rise in his support.
The Lula government also announced that it would bring forward the October payment schedule for Bolsa Família, a support program for low-income households, by about a week, from the original election-day date (the 25th) to the 19th. The government had previously raised the benefit amount by 15%.
[email protected] Hong Chae-wan Reporter