If Paulistas (residents from São Paulo, Brazil’s most populous and wealthy state) could decide who will be the next Brazilian president, former São Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin would win hands down against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Results from an Ibope (Brazil’s most traditional pollster) poll released today, August 1st, show that Alckmin would take 43% of the Paulistas votes in a first around against 33% who would vote for Lula. Senator Heloísa Helena would come in third, with 10% of the votes.
The survey paid by daily newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo also revealed that in a hypothetical second round, the ex-governor would be the winner with 51% of the votes while Lula would get 37%.
Held between July 26 and 31, the Ibope inquiry interviewed 1204 voters from 64 São Paulo municipalities and has a 3% margin of error.
The new results stayed practically the same since the last poll by Ibope one week ago. At that time, Alckmin had the preference of 43% of the voters and Lula counted on 32%. In a second round the sitting president would get 35% of the votes while the opposition candidate would manage 52%.
When asked in which candidate they would never vote for, Lula won in São Paulo. 39% say they will never pick the President’s name while 18% say the same about Alckmin. Heloísa Helena would never get the vote of 21% of Paulistas.
32% of the voters, however, still haven’t decided who to choose for president in the coming October 1st election.