Lula widens lead over Bolsonaro ahead of Brazil election

Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva increased to 13 percentage points his lead over President Jair Bolsonaro ahead of the October election, and his advantage widened from 13 to 16 points in an expected second-round runoff, according to a poll published on Monday.

The survey by IPEC showed Lula with 44% of voter support against 31% for Bolsonaro in the first round of the election scheduled for Oct. 2, compared to 44% and 32% respectively in the previous poll.

In the expected runoff, Lula would get elected by 52% of the voters versus 36% for Bolsonaro, a 16-point gap, up from 13 points a week ago, the poll showed.