Lula vs Bolsonaro: Brazil on edge as polarising election run-off goes down to wire
- Latin America’s biggest election this year is coming down to the wire in the final stretch
- Brazilian leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is challenging far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro
After a bitterly divisive campaign and inconclusive first-round vote, Brazil will elect its next president on Sunday in a cliffhanger run-off between far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The sprawling South American giant of 215 million people has been bracing for this moment for 18 months, since the Supreme Court annulled the controversial corruption convictions that sent Lula to jail – a decision that cleared the way for the once wildly popular former president (2003-2010) to make a political comeback.
It has been the charismatic-but-tarnished ex-metalworker’s race to lose ever since. And, though Lula remains the front-runner with two tense days to go, pundits say it is entirely possible he could do just that.
Bolsonaro, the vitriolic hardline conservative dubbed the “Tropical Trump”, trails by a score of 47 per cent to 53 per cent, according to a poll published on Thursday by the Datafolha institute – down from a 21-point lead for Lula in May.
Lula, who turned 77 Thursday, and Bolsonaro, 67, were to go head-to-head in a final debate on Friday night, likely to be a brutal last-ditch brawl.
“This race is going to go down to the wire,” said Brian Winter, editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly.