Bolsonaro and Lula close campaign on the eve of election day in Brazil

The campaign for the ballot in Brazil comes to an end this Saturday with a pulse in the streets between the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro and the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvawho starts with a lead in the polls for Sunday’s election.

After facing each other in the last televised debate on Friday night, in which both accused each other incessantly of lying, each one will go to meet the voters at key points for their aspirations.

Lula won the first round with 48% of the votes against 43% for Bolsonaro, a result that broke the projections that anticipated a comfortable advantage for the former president.

In Thursday’s poll Datafolha Institute, the leader of the left is ahead with 53% against 47%. This Saturday, he will publish the latest poll.

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Bolsonaro, 67, leads a caravan of motorcyclists in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais (southeast), the second largest electoral district in the country after Sao Paulo.

“I’m sure he’s going to win,” microbusinesswoman Fabrícia Alves, 36, told AFP, awaiting the arrival of the president along with other supporters dressed in green and yellow.

He supports Bolsonaro for his economic policy and “for the values” that he considers non-negotiable for his family: “I am not in favor of abortion or gender ideology, which is what the other party wants to impose on our country,” he says.

The president is seeking re-election after four years of a government marked especially by the health and economic crisis that triggered the pandemic and killed 688,000 people in Brazil, his tense relations with institutions, and international criticism of his environmental policy.

In the final stretch towards the ballot, he has presented the slow recovery of activity as achievements of his government, mainly the recent drop in inflation and unemployment, which stood at 8.7% in September.

For months, Bolsonaro questioned the electronic voting system without evidence, raising fears that he will not accept the results of next Sunday.

This Friday, however, he said that “whoever has the most votes wins,” when asked in a brief interview after the debate if he would accept an eventual defeat.

“That is democracy,” he added.

“Victory Walk” in Sao Paulo

Lula, who, at just 77 years of age, aspires to return to power after ruling Latin America’s leading economy between 2003 and 2010, is preparing a “victory walk” in Sao Paulo through the emblematic Paulista Avenue.

“Brazil needs a government that once again takes care of our people, especially those who need it most. It needs peace, democracy and dialogue,” Lula wrote in a letter addressed to voters, in which he attacked the country of “hate, lies , the intolerance” that according to him Bolsonaro embodies.

On Sunday some 156 million Brazilians are called to vote in the country’s 26 states and the federal district.

In the first round, around 32 million did not vote (21%). The number is five times the advantage of six million votes that Lula obtained over Bolsonaro.

In Brazil, voting is mandatory, but the fine for not going to the polls is 3.5 reais (0.50 cents).

The final duel between Bolsonaro and Lula will take place in the midst of the expectation of a tight result that can increase the tension and polarization of the country, after a tense campaign full of grievances and misinformation.

After his two terms, Lula was imprisoned in the framework of the “Lava Jato” anti-corruption mega-cause, but was politically resurrected after the annulment of his convictions for procedural irregularities.

Now he has the support of numerous artists, including Anitta and Caetano Veloso, Senator Simone Tebet, third in the first round (4%), and figures historically opposed to his Workers’ Party (PT), such as former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB).

Bolsonaro is seeking re-election with the support above all of agribusiness and the majority of evangelicals – a third of the electorate – who praise his ultra-conservative positions.

He has also received public support from singers of the popular Brazilian sertanejo genre, soccer player Neymar and former US President Donald Trump, with whom he is often compared.