MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula and former military officer, main presidential candidates in 2018, shows Ibope poll

Bolsonaro, former parachutist officer elected to Congress by the Progressive Party was the congressman with most votes in the 2014 Rio do Janeiro general election

Brazilian Former Lula da Silva and right-wing congressman Jair Bolsonaro would make it to a second round of voting in the 2018 presidential elections if they were held on Sunday, an Ibope poll showed.

 The poll, published in the O Globo newspaper, showed center-left Lula winning 35 to 36% of the vote in the October 2018 race regardless of the candidates he theoretically runs against.

Law-and-order congressman Bolsonaro, whose popularity has been spurred by rising violence in cities like Rio de Janeiro that were hard-hit by the country's troubled economy, would win 15% if he faced off against Lula.

Bolsonaro is former military parachutist officer elected to Congress by the Progressive Party and was the congressman who gained the most votes in the general elections of the state of Rio do Janeiro in 2014. A controversial figure in Brazil, he has been known for advocating in favor of far-right and populist political views.

Marina Silva, Former Environmental Minister for Lula, would take third placed in any voting field that included Lula as a candidate with 8 to 11% of the vote. Silva would tie with Bolsonaro for first place if Lula were out of the picture.

Despite Lula's popularity, his political future hangs in the balance after he was convicted in July of receiving bribes from a construction firm in return for help winning government contracts. In August, he said his Workers Party might have to run a different candidate.

Ibope's poll of 2,000 people in all of Brazil's states was conducted between Oct. 18 and 22. It has a margin of error of two percentage points.