Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva still gets the upper hand over his challengers in October's presidential election, showed a poll released Saturday.

Lula would defeat Geraldo Alckmin, former governor of Sao Paulo, by 40 percent to 20 percent in the first round of voting, and win a second-round runoff by 52 percent to 37 percent, according to the survey by the Datafolha polling institute.

The poll canvassed 3,795 people in 182 towns and cities on Thursday and Friday, with a margin of error of two percentage points.

Fifteen percent of survey respondents said they would choose Anthony Garotinho in the first round. The Brazilian Democratic Movement Party might field him for the presidential race.

In a March Datafolha poll, Lula led Alckmin, the Social Democratic Party's official candidate, by 42 percent to 23 percent.

Lula da Silva, of the Workers Party, has not yet officially declared his candidacy, but is widely expected to do so.

Source: Xinhua