Sao Paulo State Governor Jose Serra, from the opposition Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), kept the lead in the voting intentions for the 2010 presidential elections, according to a CNT/Sensus survey released on Monday.
According to the survey, Governor Serra attained 31.8 percent of the voting intentions for next year’s elections. Meanwhile, President Lula’s handpicked candidate, Chief of Staff Dilma Rousseff from the Workers’ Party (PT), garnered only 21.7 percent, despite a high approval rating for Lula.
Congressman Ciro Gomes, from the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB), ranked third with 17.5 percent, and Senator and former Environment Minister Marina Silva, from the Green Party (PV), received 5.9 percent of voting intentions.
The CNT/Sensus survey also considered a scenario without Governor Serra as the PSDB candidate, but with Aecio Neves, the governor of Minas Gerais state, instead. In this case, Congressman Gomes would take the lead with 25 percent of voting intentions, against Rousseff’s 21.3 percent. Governor Neves would then have 14.7 percent of voting intentions, while Senator Silva would get 7.3 percent.