BRASILIA, Brazil, April 7 (UPI) -- Confidence in Brazil's president and his administration continues to plummet, according to a poll released Wednesday.
The Ibope polling firm reported that the number of Brazilians who gave President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a "good" to "excellent" rating fell from 34 percent to 28 percent when asked at the end of March. Confidence in the political agenda of Lula and his leading Workers' Party, known as the PT, also dropped.
The survey questioned 2,000 voters throughout Brazilian between March 27 and 31 with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percent.
Two previous polls in March reported similar results following a February corruption scandal in which a presidential adviser was discovered soliciting campaign funds from a Rio numbers runner for PT candidates during 2002 elections.
Analysts say the fallout from the scandal and Brazil's sagging economy contributed to Lula's flagging polling numbers, as well as concerns that the president could have difficulty in the coming months pushing his widespread reform agenda through the Congress.
