SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Polls opened early Sunday in Brazil where 115 million voters were to pick the next president, with opinion polls favoring former trade union leader Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.

Surveys indicated Lula's support was close to the 50 percent needed to be elected without going to a second round of voting.

The likelihood Lula could become the next leader of the world's 11th biggest economy has unsettled investors, whose fears fueled financial turmoil that pushed Brazil on the brink of default and convinced the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to offer an unprecedented 30 billion dollar bailout.

A onetime metal worker and former trade union leader, Lula, who turned 57 on Sunday, had already tried for the presidency on three previous occasions.

His closest rival, according to opinion polls is Jose Serra, of the ruling Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB), followed by former Rio de Janeiro State Governor Anthony Garotinho and populist Ciro Gomes, AFP reported.