Brazil: Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro close their campaigns in the streets ahead of Sunday's runoff

São Paulo — Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro wrapped up their campaigns on Saturday with street rallies, a day before Sunday's presidential runoff, which polls keep in a technical tie.

Lula, who is seeking a fourth non-consecutive term, opened his final day of campaigning with a march along Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach, where thousands of supporters joined him under a blazing sun. "We're going to win the election for one simple reason: it's true that the people want change, but they want to move forward. They don't want to go backward," the president told journalists before the rally.

Later, the president led another march along Paulista Avenue in São Paulo, a traditional venue for political demonstrations in Brazil's largest city. For many of his supporters, the closing events carried a farewell tone: at 80, this is widely expected to be Lula's final bid for office.

Bolsonaro, meanwhile, joined a motorcycle caravan in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, a key battleground state: no candidate has won the presidency without carrying Minas Gerais since the country's return to democracy in the 1980s. The senator led Lula by around five points in that state in the first round. He later took part in a campaign march in Rio de Janeiro, the state he has represented in the Senate since 2019.

"The time is almost here. There are only a few hours left before we shape the future of our nation for the next 30 or 40 years," said the lawmaker, the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, in a social media video.

The two candidates have remained neck and neck in polls following a stronger-than-expected performance by the senator in the first round: Flávio Bolsonaro was the most voted, with 47% of the vote, about two points ahead of Lula. A CNT/MDA poll released on Saturday gave him a 1.3-point lead. On Friday, both faced off in the final debate on TV Globo, the country's main free-to-air channel, where they traded accusations over the cost of living and corruption.

Sunday's voting will run from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and the Superior Electoral Court has deployed 25,000 military personnel across the country, mainly in 301 municipalities flagged as sensitive, to guarantee security at polling stations.

Photo: Anadolu Agency

Source: Reuters