Brazil elections: Rousseff dips in latest poll amid likely dead heat

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Latest opinion polls ahead of Brazil’s presidential election next month Tuesday, September 16, saw incumbent Dilma Rousseff and ecologist challenger Marina Silva still virtually neck and neck.

But the former shed 2% as an Ibope poll gave her 40% of voter intentions while Silva remained on 43% in a likely run-off. But the contest is on course for a dead heat given a two percent margin of error.

The poll showed Rousseff, 66, garnering 36% in first round voting, down from 39% last Friday, and Silva, 56, at 30%, down from 31%.

Of 3,010 people polled between September 13 and 15, 32% reject Rousseff outright compared with just 14% as ruling out a vote for Silva.

Also Tuesday, the candidates held the latest in a series of televised debates, characterized by their steering clear of controversial social issues such as abortion or gay marriage.

Rousseff did comment on a United Nations report removing Brazil for the first time from the World Hunger Map, saying the news meant “today is a very happy day for me and for Brazil. We are one of 37 countries in the world who don’t suffer from this profound evil of hunger.”

Earlier, a court said that Rousseff’s team should take down an Internet page containing material critical of Silva.

Silva’s camp had complained to Brazil’s electoral tribunal campaign regulator, which found the material on the Muda Mais (Change More) page had not been officially registered in line with electoral law.

If the page is not removed Rousseff’s camp face a 30,000 reais (13,000) fine.

The site accused Silva of “fleeing debate – she wants to shut up Muda Mais.”

Rousseff insisted that the content was just a matter of her campaign expressing an opinion – and “opinion should be respected,” said the former Marxist guerrilla jailed and tortured under the 1964-1985 military dictatorship. – Rappler.com