BRASILIA, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is seeking re-election, is leading several polls ahead of the Oct. 4 presidential election, including a survey conducted by the MDA Research Institute and released Tuesday by the National Confederation of Transport (CNT).
According to the poll, Lula da Silva, from the Workers' Party, would receive 40.5 percent of the vote in the first round, ahead of opposition candidate Flavio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party, who would secure 30.4 percent.
Augusto Cury of the Avante party ranked third with 6 percent, while other candidates received lower levels of support.
Under Brazil's electoral system, if no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round, the two candidates with the most votes will advance to a runoff scheduled for Oct. 25.
In a potential runoff between Lula da Silva and Bolsonaro, the poll showed Lula receiving 47.3 percent of the vote, compared with 40 percent for Bolsonaro. The gap narrowed from the previous MDA survey in August, when Lula led by 9 percentage points.
Meanwhile, 79.8 percent of voters said they had already made a firm decision about their preferred candidate, while 20.2 percent remained undecided.
The MDA survey was based on more than 2,000 in-person interviews conducted nationwide from Sept. 9 to 13, with a confidence level of 95 percent. ■
