[July 24, 2010] Lula-favored candidate leads election poll Tweet RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 24, 2010 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Brazil's former Chief of Staff Dilma Rousseff, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's handpicked candidate for succession, leads over his chief rival by eight percentage points. Rousseff from Lula's Workers' Party (PT) garnered 41 percent of voter support, against 33 percent for opposition candidate Jose Serra, former Sao Paulo state governor from the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB),according to the Vox Populi survey released on Friday. Green Party's Marina Silva won 8 percent of voter support. In the previous Vox Populi poll, unveiled in June, Rousseff won 40 percent of support, while Serra got 35 percent and Silva eight percent. Meanwhile, voter rejection of the opposition candidates remains higher than that of Rousseff in the July survey, with 24 percent of the interviewees saying they would not vote for Serra. The figure remained unchanged as in June. A total of 20 percent of interviewees said they would not vote for Silva, slightly up from 19 percent in June. Rousseff's rejection rate fell from 18 to 17 percent in July. Rousseff is most popular in the northeastern region, one of the poorest in Brazil, where he has 54 percent of support, against Serra's 24 percent and Silva's five percent. In the more developed southern region, Serra has 39 percent of support compared with Rousseff's 35 percent and Silva's seven percent. In the most populated southeastern region, Serra also takes the lead, with 36 percent of support, while Rousseff has 34 percent, and Silva 10 percent. According to the poll, Rousseff is favored by both male and female voters. A total of 43 percent of the men interviewed said they would vote for Rousseff, while 34 percent said they would vote for Serra and seven percent for Silva. Among women, Rousseff has 38 percent of support, while Serra has 32 percent and Silva has nine percent. The Vox Populi survey also showed that the approval rate of President Lula's government remained at 78 percent in July. A total of 29 percent considered the current administration very good, 49 percent considered it good, and 18 percent considered it regular. The poll was conducted between July 17 and 20, involving 3,000 people. It has a margin of error of 1.8 percentage points. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]