MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian presidential runoff in a neck to neck technical tie

The two candidates have ten exhausting days before Election Day

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and her challenger Senator Aecio Neves for the 26 October runoff, are technically tied according to the latest public opinion poll released by Datafolha, which so far has shown to be one of the most reliable pollsters.

According to the poll's results the senator from the Brazilian Social Democrat party, PSDB has a 51% vote intention, just two percentage points ahead of President Rousseff, with 49% and who is running for re-election.

Since the poll's margin of error is plus or minus two percentage points, the result is a technical tie. Datafolha interviewed 2,879 voters in 178 municipalities of the country between Wednesday (8) and Thursday (9). The confidence level of the poll is 95% (100 surveys using the same methodology, results are within the margin of error on 95 occasions).

Considering all polls from Datafolha since 1989, this is the first time a Brazilian presidential candidate who was runner-up in the first round appears to have more vote intentions than the winner in a runoff poll.

In the first round, Rousseff garnered 41.59% of the votes and Aecio 33.55%; in third place, Marina Silva (PSB) had 21.32%.

Analyzing the historical polarization between the ruling Workers Party, PT and PSDB, it is also the first time since 2002 that a PSDB candidate appears numerically ahead of a PT candidate in a simulation at a decisive election.

Total vote numbers are: 46% for Neves; 44%, Rousseff; 4% willing to vote null or blank, and 6% undecided.

Rousseff government's performance assessment reveals a stable solid situation for the president with 39% of interviews describing her administration as good or excellent.