Lula’s Hand-Picked Successor Widens Lead in Poll

 A poll released Saturday for Brazil’s October presidential election showed the hand-picked candidate of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva maintaining her lead by a sufficient margin to guarantee victory in the first round of voting.

Dilma Rousseff, of the left-leaning Workers’ Party, or PT, got 51% of support from respondents, compared with 43% in an Ibope poll earlier this month, according to survey by the Ibope polling institute, published Saturday.

On the other hand, Jose Serra, from the Social Democrats’ Party, or PSDB, slipped back to 27% of voters’ support, from 32% in the previous poll, according to Ibope.

Trailing Ms. Rousseff and Mr. Serra was Green Party candidate Marina Silva, with backing from 7% of respondents.

According to analysts, Ms. Rousseff has improved her image with voters in recent months by appearing beside Mr. da Silva at dozens of public events. The ruling PT government’s performance in leading Latin America’s largest economy through the financial crisis and a brief recession last year also has been a positive for Mr. da Silva’s hand-picked successor.

The Ibope poll also showed Mr. sa Silva’s popularity stayed at an all-time high, as 78% of respondents classified his administration’s performance as “excellent or good.” That’s matches the previous record set in a similar poll release earlier this month.

Ibope noted that the approval rating for Mr. da Silva’s administration is the highest since his inauguration in 2003.

The polling institute interviewed 1,204 voting-age Brazilians nationwide between Aug. 24-26. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.