Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro continues to gain ground for next moth election

Brazil's front-running far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro continued to gain ground for next month's election, but the Workers Party's Fernando Haddad is surging behind him and they will likely face off in a second-round vote, a new poll showed on Thursday.

Bolsonaro, who is recovering in hospital from a near-fatal stabbing two weeks ago, has 28 percent in the survey of voter intentions by polling firm Datafolha, a gain of 2 points since the previous poll a week ago.

Haddad, who replaced jailed former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the ticket nine days ago, has 16 percent, a 3 percentage point rise, but is statistically tied with center-leftist Ciro Gomes, who has not increased his 13 percent support.

Datafolha surveyed 8,601 voters across Brazil on Sep. 18-19. The poll, published by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, has a margin of error of two percentage points.