Ibope poll shows Brazil's Rousseff lead over Silva widening

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff widened her lead ahead of Sunday's presidential election and would defeat environmentalist Marina Silva in an expected runoff vote, pollster Ibope showed late on Tuesday. Rousseff of the ruling Workers' Party has 42 percent of voter support in a runoff, while Silva has 38 percent, the Ibope poll showed, according to TV Globo news program Jornal Nacional. In the prior Ibope poll a week ago, Rousseff and Silva were tied at 41 percent. Brazilians go to the polls on Sunday. If no candidate wins an outright majority, the election will be decided in a runoff between the top two vote-getters on Oct. 26. In first-round voting, support for Rousseff reached 39 percent, compared with 38 percent a week ago. Support for Silva slipped to 25 percent from 29 percent. Support for Aecio Neves, candidate of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, remained unaltered at 19 percent. The new Ibope poll surveyed 2,002 respondents nationwide between Sept 25 and Sept 30 and has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points. It was commissioned by media conglomerate Globo Comunicações and the results were broadcast on TV Globo. (Reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal; Additional reporting by Eduardo Simões in São Paulo; Editing by Ken Wills)