Brazil: Rousseff Gains Ground in New Polls

New polls released on Tuesday show that the popularity of Brazilian Presidential candidate Marina Silva has stalled, with her popularity showing the first signs of stabilization since her meteoric rise in recent weeks.

Silva, a former senator and new presidential candidate for the Brazilian Socialist Party was second in the polls, but looked to defeat current president Dilma Rousseff in the runoff scheduled for three weeks later.

The polls showed that Rousseff had gained some ground and is statistically tied with Silva in the runoff second round of the elections which are scheduled for October 26, after the first round October 5.

Silva has 45.5 percent support in the second round, and Rousseff 42.7.  But with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percent, the polls show a very close race.

In August polls, Silva was 6 percent in front of Rousseff. The centrist Brazilian Social Democracy Party candidate Aecio Neves lags behind with 14.7 percent support and wouldn’t make the second round.

Brazil holds a runoff if the leading candidate fails to garner more votes than all others put together.

Rousseff has been a fierce critic in recent weeks of Silva's economic plans, saying that the pro-market policies would lead to higher unemployment.

Also, last week Aecio Neves accused Marina Silva of plagiarizing his government proposal.