Lula slightly boosts lead over Bolsonaro ahead of Brazil first round -poll

FILE PHOTO: Lula holds rally "Todos Juntos pelo Rio Grande do Sul" (All Together for Rio Grande do Sul) in Porto Alegre
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SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazil's presidential frontrunner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva slightly boosted his lead over incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro to 14 percentage points in a poll published on Thursday by pollster Datafolha, less than two weeks before the Oct. 2 first-round vote.

The Datafolha survey showed Lula with 47% voter support versus 33% for Bolsonaro in the election's first round, compared with 45% and 33%, respectively, in the previous poll.

In an expected second-round run-off, Lula would garner the support of 54% of voters versus 38% for Bolsonaro, a 16 point advantage, according to the poll, the same result from a week ago.

Bolsonaro's approval rating edged up to 32%, compared to 30% one week ago; and still above the 22% he held in December, after which his popularity ticked up thanks to welfare programs and measures to tackle inflation.

His disapproval came in at 44%, according to the poll, the same result from one week ago but down from the 53% seen in December.

Datafolha conducted 6,754 in-person interviews between Sept. 20-22. The poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points up or down.

(Reporting by Peter Frontini and Pedro Fonseca; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Christian Plumb)