Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is holding on to her wide lead over potential rivals and would win a second term outright in the October 5 general election, according to a poll published on Thursday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Despite Brazil's lackluster economic performance and stubbornly high inflation on her watch, Rousseff would be re-elected in the first round if the vote was held today, the Ibope poll showed, the WSJ reported.
The survey of voter intentions found Rousseff has 43 percent of the electorate's support, against 15 percent for Senator Aecio Neves of the main opposition party PSDB and 7 percent for Eduardo Campos, governor of Pernambuco state, according to the WSJ.
The polls also show most Brazilians believe the money spent hosting the World Cup would have been better spent on solving the country's problems, the WSJ reported.
Brazil's presidential election race will get serious after the World Cup for soccer ends in mid-July and while no one has officially declared themselves a candidate, all three are expected to run, the WSJ reported. The results are virtually unchanged from the previous Ibope poll in November, with Neves gaining just one percentage point.
While Rousseff is the front-runner, the Ibope poll found 64 percent of Brazilian voters want the next president to change the way Brazil is governed, according to the WSJ. Of those, 63 percent said they want the change of course to come with another president at the helm.
Rousseff's popularity plummeted last June due to massive street protests by Brazilians angered with poor public services, corrupt politicians and the cost of building stadiums for this year's soccer World Cup, the WSJ reported.
She steadily recovered her numbers by yearend, recent polls have shown a dip in her approval ratings, with rising prices, crime and inadequate health and education services ranking high as the main concerns of Brazilians, according to the WSJ.
The Ibope survey of 2,002 people was done between March 13 and 17 and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points, the WSJ reported .With the vote six months away, much can change in poll numbers as Brazilians have yet to become engaged in the presidential race.