Brazil’s embattled Workers’ Party (PT) retains its lead in the nation’s upcoming presidential election, but with a severely reduced margin in the event its leader, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is disqualified. A nationwide poll released Monday by the National Transportation Confederation (CNT) showed Lula with 37.3% of voter intentions, trailed by conservative candidate Congressman Jair Bolsonaro at 18.8%. Environmentalist Marina Silva polled 5.6%, with centrist nominee Geraldo Alckmin at 4.9% and left-leaning candidate Ciro Gomes at 4.1%. Former President Lula, however, is currently in priso n, serving a 12-year sentence for corruption. The Supreme Electoral Court is widely expected to rule him ineligible. The ruling is expected by mid-September. Brazilians go to the polls in October. The CNT poll also sounded out voters on possible substitution of Lula by the party’s vice presidential nominee, former São Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad. That poll showed Haddad in the lead, but with just 17.3% of voter intentions, with Marina Silva in second place at 11.9%, followed by Gomes at 9.6%, Bolsonaro at 6.2% and Alckmin at 3.7%. Active campaigning, including free radio and television time, begins next week.
Link to CNT/MDA release
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