Brazil´s President Lula maintains poll lead over right-wing Senator Bolsonaro

SAO PAULO - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has maintained his lead over opposition right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro in the race for the October presidential election, a new poll by Datafolha showed on Saturday.

Lula, of the left-wing Workers' Party, would win a potential second-round runoff against the senator by 47% to 43%, repeating last month's results, Datafolha said.

In the most likely first-round scenario, the incumbent polled at 41% compared to 31% for Bolsonaro.

The new Datafolha survey suggests that the senator may have stemmed the electoral damage caused by the revelation that he asked a now jailed banker to finance a film about his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been convicted of plotting a coup against the democratic order.

The senator said that no favors were exchanged in connection with the movies' financing.

Datafolha surveyed 2,004 respondents across 139 cities. The poll carries a margin of error of two percentage points.

(Reporting by Luciana Magalhaes, Editing by Franklin Paul)

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This story was originally published June 20, 2026 at 11:31 AM.