Brazil's Rousseff and Neves even ahead of October 26 runoff: poll

Reuters
Brazil's presidential candidates Aecio Neves (R) of Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB) greets Dilma Rousseff of Workers Party (PT) after the television debate at the Bandeirantes TV studio in Sao Paulo October 14, 2014. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker

BRASILIA (Reuters) - President Dilma Rousseff and her pro-business challenger Aecio Neves are still running neck and neck ahead of the Oct. 26 runoff to Brazil's presidential election, a new poll showed on Wednesday. Neves has 45 percent of voter support against 43 percent for leftist incumbent Rousseff, one percentage point less than each candidate had in the previous survey by polling firm Datafolha six days ago. The difference is within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points and considered a statistical tie. Excluding undecided voters, spoiled and blank survey responses, Neves has 51 percent against 49 percent for Rousseff, the same as last week. Datafolha polled 9,081 voters on Tuesday and Wednesday. The poll was commissioned by the Globo media group and the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper. (Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Chris Reese)