Lula retains lead over Flavio Bolsonaro ahead of Brazil election, Datafolha shows

SAO PAULO, Aug 21 - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva continues to lead Senator Flavio Bolsonaro ahead of the October election, although the right-wing challenger has narrowed the gap by one percentage point, within the error margin, a Datafolha poll showed on Friday.

In a simulated second-round runoff, Lula would receive 47% of the vote against Bolsonaro's 43%, according to Datafolha, which has an error margin of two percentage points. In July, Lula led Senator Bolsonaro, son of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, by 48% to 43%.

• This is the first Datafolha poll released since the start of the official campaign, when candidates are legally allowed to actively seek votes.

• In a first-round scenario, Lula leads with 39% of the votes, followed by Bolsonaro (33%), Ronaldo Caiado (5%), Renan Santos (4%), and Romeu Zema (3%).

• If no candidate wins more than 50% of valid votes in the first round, the two frontrunners advance to a runoff, which has happened in every presidential election since 2002.

• Datafolha surveyed 2,058 people starting on August 18. REUTERS