Brazil’s Socialist Party, whose dark-horse presidential candidate died in a plane crash last week, now has a chance of making it to a runoff and even winning the October election, a new poll showed on Monday. Barely a week ago, Marina Silva was a vice-presidential hopeful running with Eduardo Campos, who was polling a distant third with about 8% of the vote at the time of his death, leaving Ms. Silva poised to take his place at the top of the ticket. The survey by polling firm Datafolha showed Ms. Silva—whose candidacy hasn’t yet been officially announced by her party, but is widely expected in coming days—not only appears be a stronger candidate than Mr. Campos, but would have a viable shot at defeating incumbent President Dilma Rousseff of the leftist Workers’ Party in the event of a second-round runoff vote.
… Ms. Silva has pulled off electoral surprises before. Running for president as a Green Party candidate in 2010, she surpassed expectations by capturing 19% of the first-round vote, finishing third but forcing a runoff that Ms. Rousseff won. Ms. Silva had planned to run for president this year with her new party, the Sustainability Network, but it failed to meet registration requirements, so she switched parties and became Mr. Campos’s running mate.
Ms. Silva, 56 years old, a former environment minister who hails from a poor family of rubber-tappers, appears to be luring some voters turned off by politics as usual. The poll suggests she could draw more support from undecided voters and minor-party candidates than Mr. Campos could.
Full Article: Death Lifts Opposition in Brazil Vote – WSJ.