Brasilia, July 19 (RHC)-- Suspended President Dilma Rousseff's predecessor, former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva -- popularly known as Lula -- is the favored candidate for the 2018 presidential elections.  At the same time, it is being reported that interim coup President Michel Temer trails far behind with just 5 percent of popularity.

According to a new Datafolha poll commissioned by the Globo newspaper, of nearly 3,000 respondents conducted between July 14th and 15th, it was found that the former labor leader and Workers’ Party founder Lula da Silva leads voter preferences with 22 percent, followed by the Green Party’s Marina Silva at 17 percent.  Silva finished third in the 2010 presidential election.

Lula da Silva has expressed interest in running in the 2018 election, saying that the more he and his ally Rousseff are attacked, the more likely he is to run. 

Behind the two projected frontrunners, Temer ally and senator Aecio Neves of the right-wing PSDB party polled in third with 14 percent.  Neves lost the 2014 presidential runoff to Rousseff and was a leading advocate of the impeachment campaign against her, widely condemned as a coup.

The poll comes just weeks ahead of an impeachment vote in which the Brazilian Senate will decide whether or not to permanently remove Rousseff from office, which would install Temer until the 2018 election.