It all started as a joke, but towel sales in Rio de Janeiro may be reflecting the outcome of one of the most important elections happening in South America. This comes as President Jair Bolsonaro continues to sow doubts about the upcoming Brazilian elections and propagate the mistrust his supporters have of the polls. Bolsonaro is currently trailing his rival, former president Lula, in these polls.

Because of the skepticism surrounding the elections, especially among Bolsonaro supporters, several street vendors in the city have cashed in with their own polls based on the sales of politically-themed towels. They have dubbed the trend DataToalha, a play on the name of the country's most prominent pollster, Datafolha. The Associated Press noted that ″toalha″ is Portuguese for towel.

Towel Sales Almost Have Same Results as Official Brazilian Polls

According to the most recent polls, Lula is leading with almost 50% of the votes, while Bolsonaro is polling second at only 28%. However, Bolsonaro and his supporters rejected these results. The current president even mocked a poll from last year, which had Lula winning by almost 60%,

However, the towel sales also seem to have Lula in the lead as well. The difference in these towel sales has him at a much bigger lead. One stand owned by vendor Jose Lucas da Silva, 28, placed a scoreboard regarding who is leading the towel sales. Like the polls, Lula is leading, but his lead is much wider, as he leads Bolsonaro 43-5.

The vendor stated that this all started out as a joke but is actually working out for them more. He then added that "Whoever wants to participate just needs to buy!"

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Lula Maintains Big Lead in Official Polls

Datafolha has released their latest poll results last Thursday, and it has the leftist former president Lula polling at 47%, while Bolsonaro was polling at 29%. This means that Bolsonaro is slowly gaining, but his rival's lead is just too large.

US News reported that if the polls were held today, Lula would get around 53% of the valid votes. This means that he would avoid a second-round runoff election. A runoff election occurs if no candidate gets more than 50% of the unspoiled ballots.

However, if there is a runoff election, Lula would still win, as he would get 55% of the votes against Bolsonaro's 35%. Datafolha noted that Lula's lead has been slowly slipping since he had a 29-point lead against Bolsonaro last December. Now it's just a 20-point lead.

According to poll tracker AS/COA, the first round of the Brazilian elections will take place on October 2. Brazilians will vote for not only the next president, but also 27 senators, 513 members of the Chamber of Deputies, and all 27 governors. If no candidate takes over 50% of the votes, the runoff will occur on October 30. The new president is expected to be sworn in on January 1, 2023.

READ MORE: Brazil Elections: Jair Bolsonaro Continues to Sow Doubts on Election as He Lags in Polls

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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