Recent Poll: Dilma Recovers Her Lead

After suffering a steep decline in her approval rating and support for re-election after last summer's protests, Dilma's numbers are showing significant improvement.

According to an article in the NYTimes, her November approval rating is a very solid 58.8%, up slightly from September, when it was 58%.

The article cites Dilma's program to bring foreign doctors to help improve access to health care, her public works projects, and improvements in public transport as some of the reasons for her improved standing among voters. 

Here's how her electoral prospects look right now:

"If the elections were held today, Rousseff of the Workers' Party would win 43.5 percent of the votes against 19.3 percent for her closest likely candidate, Aecio Neves of the main opposition party PSDB, and 9.5 percent for Eduardo Campos, the little known but popular governor of northern Pernambuco state.

If Rousseff ran against her biggest potential threat, former environment minister Silva, her advantage would drop to 40.6 percent versus 22.6 percent. Silva, who won 20 million votes in a presidential bid in 2010, last month joined Campos' PSB party to keep alive a possible run after electoral authorities barred her from registering her party."

But the article goes on to caution that Brazilian poll results are not considered to  be very meaningful until the onset of TV ads, which won't begin until 3 months before the election.

The poll showed that crime and violence in Brazil are major issues driving voter concerns, with 90% reporting that they are "very worried" about these problems.