RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- A Datafolha poll released on Thursday showed a significant rise in the rejection of leading presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro among women, who make up the majority of Brazilian voters.
Women constitute 52.5 percent of the electorate in Brazil, where voting is mandatory from 18 to 70 years of age, and optional from 16 to 18 and above 70. Bolsonaro managed to anger a significant share of female voters.
According to the Datafolha poll, Bolsonaro's overall rejection rate is 43 percent, the highest of all candidates. Among men, the rejection rate is lower, at 37 percent, but among women the figure rise significantly, reaching 49 percent of women who declared they will not vote for Bolsonaro under any circumstance.
Bolsonaro, from the Social Liberal Party, and his running mate, Army General Antonio Mourao, have a mostly conservative base, and over the campaign have repeatedly made statements considered highly sexist by a large share of Brazilian women.
In the most recent incident, which occurred earlier this week, Mourao berated single mothers, calling households led solely by mothers and grandmothers as a "factory of maladjusted elements," causing uproar and severe criticism.
Brazil is a country where millions of men are absent fathers: over 5 million Brazilian children do not have any declared fathers on their birth certificates, and over 11 million households are led only by women, without the presence of male partners.
So far, Bolsonaro has a strong lead, with 28 percent of voting intentions, followed by runner-up Fernando Haddad at 16 percent, and then Ciro Gomes at 13 percent. But Bolsonaro's high rejection rate, especially among women, is widely regarded as an obstacle to his advance.
Over the past few weeks, groups of women against Bolsonaro have organized by the millions on social networks, where a widespread campaign exists calling on women to vote for any candidate but him.
On the other hand, Fernand Haddad has a rejection rate similar to Bolsonaro's among men at 35 percent, but he is much less rejected by women with a rate at 24 percent. Ciro Gomes has even lower rejection rates, 26 percent among men and 18 percent among women.
The Datafolha poll was carried out on Sept. 18-19 among 8,601 eligible voters from all over Brazil. The margin of error is two points.
