Brazil held its first presidential debate on Tuesday. On the same day, a new poll was released showing that there is a surge of popularity for Marina Silva, who replaced the late presidential candidate Eduardo Campos after his death early this month in a plane crash. CCTV America’s Lucrecia Franco reports.

There was not a clear winner in the first televised debate between Brazil’s presidential candidates.

Incumbent president Dilma Rousseff of the ruling worker’s party was attacked by her two main rivals, Marina Silva from the socialist party and social democrat Aecio Neves.

Rousseff defended her government saying she was aiming to create a new circle of growth that would allow Brazil to become an even more middle class country.

However, all eyes were on the environmentalist, Marina Silva, who replaced the candidate Eduardo Campos that died in a recent plane crash.

Silva arrived at the debate with new polls showing that she had 29 percent of voter support , while Dilma still led with 34 percent. In a likely runoff, Silva would defeat Rousseff by a margin of 9 points.

The first debate and the new polls showed that Brazil’s presidential election will be a race for the second round between Rousseff and Silva, a candidate that some analysts said could be the choice of a growing skeptical electorate.

There could be more suprises in the coming weeks, but analysts believe that Brazil’s elections set for October 5th with a second round on October 26th will be a head to head between two very different women.

Follow Lucrecia C. Franco on Twitter @LucreciaFranco

For more insight, CCTV America’s Phillip Yin interviews Paulo Sotero, the director of the Brazil Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center.