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

SAO PAULO, Sept 11 - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva maintained the numerical lead over Senator Flavio Bolsonaro in a potential runoff of the October election, a Datafolha poll showed on Friday.

• Lula is seen with 46% of the vote in a potential runoff, against 44% for the senator, a son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, according to Datafolha.

• The figures did not change from the previous poll last week.

• In a first-round scenario, Lula would lead with 39% of the vote, followed by Bolsonaro (35%), Augusto Cury (6%), and Ronaldo Caiado (4%).

• In the previous poll, Lula had 38%, and Flavio Bolsonaro, 33%, in the first round.

• 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 2,002 people between September 8-10, and has a margin of error of two percentage points. REUTERS