Brazil's Lula widens first-round lead; runoff with Bolsonaro stays tight, BTG/Nexus poll shows

SAO PAULO, Sept 28 - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Senator Flavio Bolsonaro remain statistically tied in a simulated runoff ahead of next month's election, while the leftist incumbent widened his lead in first-round voting intentions, a BTG Pactual/Nexus poll showed on Monday.• In a potential runoff, Lula would receive 46% of voter support, compared with 44% for the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, the poll said.• Lula's narrow runoff lead remains within the survey's margin of error.• A September 21 survey had Lula leading Bolsonaro by 46% to 45%.• In a first-round scenario, Lula would lead with 42% of the votes, followed by Bolsonaro (37%), Augusto Cury (5%), Ronaldo Caiado (5%) and Renan Santos (4%).• The previous first-round survey had Lula at 40% and Bolsonaro at 37%.• If no candidate wins more than 50% of valid votes in the October 4 first round, the two frontrunners will advance to a runoff on October 25.• Nexus surveyed 2,000 people from September 25 to 27. The poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points. REUTERS