BRASILIA (Reuters). BRASILIA — Former President LuizInacio Lula Silva is still the clear leader for the Brazilian presidential election this year. In Brazil, which has high inflation and the resurgence COVID-19, voters are concerned, a poll released on Wednesday revealed.

According to the Banco Genial/Quaest Pesquisas survey, Lula would receive 45% votes and Jair Bolsonaro 23% if today’s election was held.

It stated that Lula would prevail in a second round run-off vote by Bolsonaro, 54% to 30%. Although neither has officially declared their intention to run, the two men will likely face each other in an election that is polarized.

Quaest polls showed that both candidate support dropped by 2 points in the December survey. This was also true of Sergio Moro who came third among anti-corruption judges. His intentions fell one point, to 9%.

The poll revealed that 72% of Brazilians support vaccinations for children as variant Omicron is increasing in Brazil. This was contrary to Bolsonaro, who has been a vaccine-skeptic.

Bolsonaro continues to receive negative ratings from 50% of those who believe his government is terrible or bad, mostly women (55% against 45%).

According to government data, 73% believe Bolsonaro did a poor job in fighting inflation. It reached a peak of more than 10% six years ago, according to Tuesday’s report.

Between January 6-9, Pollster Quest interviewed 2,000 people in 120 cities. This poll is subject to a margin error of plus/minus 2 percentage point.