Brazilian presidential challenger Aécio Neves has surpassed Marina Silva in support to grab second place against incumbent president Dilma Rousseff ahead of a first round vote Sunday, the latest polls show. A poll by the Datafolha institute showed Mr. Neves, of the Social Democratic Party, had support from 26% of respondents, compared with 24% for Ms. Silva, of the Socialist Party, and 44% for Ms. Rousseff, of the Workers’s Party. Similarly, an Ibope institute poll showed Mr. Neves with 27%, compared to 24% for Ms. Silva and 46% for Ms. Rousseff. In a second round runoff, Ms. Rousseff would take 48% of the vote, while Mr. Neves would take 42%, according to Datafolha. Ibope showed Ms. Rousseff with 45%, versus 37% for Mr. Neves. According to Brazilian election rules, if no candidate takes more than 50% of the valid vote in a first round, a runoff election is held. The late turnaround for Mr. Neves comes after Ms. Silva surged early on in the polls following her substitution for former socialist candidate Eduardo Campos, who was killed in a plane crash in August. Mr. Neves, however, was benefitted by greater official television and radio advertising time as his political coalition has more members than Ms. Silva’s. The latest polls by Datafolha and Ibope were taken between Oct. 2-4 and have a margin of error of two percentage points.




