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Brazil's Lula holds lead over Flavio Bolsonaro ahead of election, Datafolha poll shows

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The Straits Times. (2026, September 17). Brazil's Lula holds lead over Flavio Bolsonaro ahead of election, Datafolha poll shows. The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/world/brazils-lula-holds-lead-over-flavio-bolsonaro-ahead-of-election-datafolha-poll-shows

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The Straits Times · collected 2026-09-17 · by The Straits Times

Quick Summary

A recent Datafolha poll conducted from September 15 to 17 shows that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva leads Senator Flavio Bolsonaro in a potential October presidential runoff with 46% and 44% support, respectively. The margin of error is 2 percentage points, indicating a technical tie between the two candidates. In a first-round poll, Lula had 39%, followed by Flavio Bolsonaro at 36%.
Written by AI on 2026-09-18, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

A recent Datafolha poll conducted from September 15-17 shows that Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva maintains a narrow lead over Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, in the upcoming October presidential election. In a potential runoff scenario, Lula leads with 46% support compared to Flavio Bolsonaro's 44%, which is unchanged from an earlier poll on September 11. Given a margin of error of ±2 percentage points, this result indicates a technical tie. The first-round preference polls show Lula at 39% and Flavio Bolsonaro at 36%. Under Brazil’s electoral system, if no candidate secures more than 50% in the initial round, the top two proceed to a runoff.

Written for “Brazil Election Polls” on 2026-11-02, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Brazil Election Polls
Politics · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

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How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
8
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
12%
1 of 8 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
66/100
The Straits Times's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-18 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

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Running correction rate · 5 correction(s)
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Topics

Brazil Datafolha REUTERS SAO PAULO

Subjects

Datafolha ORG · 4× Flavio Bolsonaro PERSON · 4× Lula PERSON · 4× Brazil GPE · 3× Augusto Cury PERSON · 1× Jair Bolsonaro PERSON · 1× Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva PERSON · 1× Renan Santos PERSON · 1× Ronaldo Caiado PERSON · 1× SAO PAULO GPE · 1×

Narrative

In the runoff scenario, Lula had 46% support and Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, had 44%, unchanged from the previous Datafolha poll released on September 11.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-18
2026-09-18 · The Straits Times
Brazil's Lula holds lead over Flavio Bolsonaro ahead of election, Datafolha poll shows · assertive framing

Claims (8 extracted, 1 hedged)

Brazil's Lula holds lead over Flavio Bolsonaro ahead of election, Datafolha poll shows SAO PAULO, Sept 17 - Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva held a narrow numerical lead over Senator Flavio Bolsonaro in a potential runoff in the October presidential election, according to a Datafolha poll published on Thursday. uncertain
Silva → hold → Thursday
In the runoff scenario, Lula had 46% support and Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, had 44%, unchanged from the previous Datafolha poll released on September 11. asserted
Bolsonaro → have → September
• With a margin of error of 2 percentage points, the result indicates a technical tie. asserted
result → indicate → tie
• In a first-round scenario, Lula had 39%, compared with 36% for Flavio Bolsonaro. asserted
Lula → have → Bolsonaro
Augusto Cury had 6%, Ronaldo Caiado 4%, Renan Santos 3% and Romeu Zema 2%. asserted
Santos → have → %
• In the previous poll, Lula had 39% and Bolsonaro 35% in the first round. asserted
Bolsonaro → have → round
• Under Brazil's electoral system, if no candidate wins more than 50% of valid votes in the first round, the top two advance to a runoff. asserted
two → win → runoff
• Datafolha surveyed 2,002 people between September 15-17. asserted
Datafolha → survey → September
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