He may be out of sight, but he's not out of mind. Presidential runner Jair Bolsonaro (PSL) is recovering in a hospital bed for the last two weeks, but he is still the frontrunner, according to a new Datafolha poll.
The survey, which was completed on Wednesday (19th), shows that the retired Army captain gained two percentage points and reached 28% of voting intentions, keeping up with the upward trend seen since the campaign began.
The former mayor of São Paulo Fernando Haddad (PT), who has been growing in popularity as Lula's replacement, had 16% of respondents declaring their votes for him, an increase of three percentage points since last week.
Haddad is still technically tied with Ciro Gomes (PDT), who remained stagnated with 13%.
Datafolha interviewed 8,601 voters from 323 towns on Tuesday and Wednesday (19th). The margin of error is two percentage points. Folha and TV Globo commissioned the survey.
Former São Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB), who has almost half of the mandatory political ads airtime, is also stagnated at 9%.
He is tied with Marina Silva (Rede), who now has 7% of voting intentions, less than half from when she started campaigning.
Datafolha's simulations for the second round show that Ciro Gomes is the only candidate who would beat everyone else.
If he runs against Bolsonaro, he would win with 45% of intentions, a vantage of 6 points against far-right politician. In other scenarios, he would tie with Haddad, Alckmin and Marina.
Bolsonaro's rejection is still high, and Haddad's increased. According to the poll, 43% of voters would never vote for Bolsonaro, and 29% reject the former mayor.
Translated by NATASHA MADOV