Rousseff and Neves even ahead of Oct 26 runoff

Brazil's President and presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff of the Workers Party (PT) speaks during a meeting with educators in Sao Paulo October 15, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

BRASILIA - President Dilma Rousseff and her pro-business challenger Aecio Neves are still running neck and neck ahead of the Oct 26 runoff to Brazil's presidential election, a new poll showed on Wednesday.

Neves has 45 percent of voter support against 43 percent for leftist incumbent Rousseff, one percentage point less than each candidate had in the previous survey by polling firm Datafolha six days ago.

The difference is within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points and considered a statistical tie.

Excluding undecided voters, spoiled and blank survey responses, Neves has 51 percent against 49 percent for Rousseff, the same as last week.

Datafolha polled 9,081 voters on Tuesday and Wednesday. The poll was commissioned by the Globo media group and the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper.