SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has a 13-percentage-point lead over President Jair Bolsonaro, but the far-right incumbent has narrowed his leftist rival's advantage ahead of the October election, according to a poll published on Thursday.
The survey by Datafolha showed Lula with 45{5ad0cd663e4180c32b8049fbde12201ec3855e324a84c95f0595f875746ae8b3} of voter support against 32{5ad0cd663e4180c32b8049fbde12201ec3855e324a84c95f0595f875746ae8b3} for Bolsonaro in the first round of the election scheduled for Oct. 2, compared with 47{5ad0cd663e4180c32b8049fbde12201ec3855e324a84c95f0595f875746ae8b3} and 32{5ad0cd663e4180c32b8049fbde12201ec3855e324a84c95f0595f875746ae8b3} respectively in the previous poll.
In an expected second-round run-off, Lula would get elected by 53{5ad0cd663e4180c32b8049fbde12201ec3855e324a84c95f0595f875746ae8b3} of the votes versus 38{5ad0cd663e4180c32b8049fbde12201ec3855e324a84c95f0595f875746ae8b3} for Bolsonaro, a 15 percentage point advantage, down from 17 points two weeks ago, the poll showed.
Bolsonaro has also posted slow but steady growth in his approval rate, which reached 31{5ad0cd663e4180c32b8049fbde12201ec3855e324a84c95f0595f875746ae8b3}, from 30{5ad0cd663e4180c32b8049fbde12201ec3855e324a84c95f0595f875746ae8b3} two weeks ago and 22{5ad0cd663e4180c32b8049fbde12201ec3855e324a84c95f0595f875746ae8b3} in December, as he gained popularity after passing welfare programs and measures to tackle inflation.
His disapproval rate came in at 42{5ad0cd663e4180c32b8049fbde12201ec3855e324a84c95f0595f875746ae8b3}, according to the poll, down from 43{5ad0cd663e4180c32b8049fbde12201ec3855e324a84c95f0595f875746ae8b3} two weeks ago and 53{5ad0cd663e4180c32b8049fbde12201ec3855e324a84c95f0595f875746ae8b3} from December.
Datafolha interviewed 5,734 people in person between August 30 and Sept. 1. The poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points up or down.
(Reporting by Peter Frontini and Anthony Boadle; Editing by Sandra Maler and Richard Pullin)
