THE BUZZ | Brazilian election enters dead heat as Silva loses poll lead

Marina Silva lost her lead in a Datafolha poll that shows a runoff against President Dilma Rousseff is too close to call less than four weeks before Brazilians start voting.
Silva has 47 percent of voter support in an Oct. 26 second round and Rousseff 43 percent, according to the poll published last night in Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper. The difference of four percentage points falls within the margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points. The runoff results for this poll compare to 48 percent for Silva and 41 percent for the incumbent in the Datafolha poll conducted Sept. 1-3.
Rousseff’s campaign in the past two weeks has stepped up attacks against Silva, saying the former environment minister doesn’t have the experience or support in Congress to lead and that her pledge to grant central bank autonomy threatens jobs. Silva has criticized the incumbent’s handling of the economy, which fell into recession in the first half of this year.