Sao Paulo, October 13 (RHC) -- Ecologist Marina Silva, who obtained the third-most votes in Brazil’s October 5th presidential election, has declared her support for Sen. Aecio Neves in the upcoming runoff, in which the social democrat will face off against incumbent Dilma Rousseff.

“Taking into account the commitments made by Aecio Neves, I declare my vote and my support for his candidacy,” said Silva, who obtained 21.1 percent of the votes in last Sunday’s first electoral round, in a statement to the press.

Silva said that she was not giving her support to Neves in exchange for any agreement and was doing so merely as a “citizen,” given that the coalition of parties who supported her in the first round have already expressed their positions.

Six of the members of the coalition have expressed their support for Neves, one minority party said it was remaining neutral and the Sustainability Network, the movement headed by Silva which aspires to become an independent party, has only told its supporters not to vote for Rousseff.

In the first electoral round, Rousseff garnered 41.59 percent of the votes, followed by Neves with 33.55 percent, and the two top vote-getters will go up against each other in the runoff, to be held on October 26th.

According to a voter intention poll released on Saturday by the Sensus survey firm, Neves is currently favored to win the election with 58.8 percent of the votes, compared with 41.2 percent for Rousseff.