Brazil: statistical tie between Flávio Bolsonaro and Lula four days before the runoff

Brasilia — Brazil's presidential race reaches the home stretch in a statistical tie: Senator Flávio Bolsonaro holds 45% of voter intention and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva 44%, according to the Quaest poll released Wednesday, just four days before the October 25 runoff.

The survey, with 2,154 voters interviewed between October 17 and 20 and a two-percentage-point margin of error, shows Flávio Bolsonaro down one point from the previous week and Lula unchanged. Nine percent would vote blank or null and 2% remain undecided — figures that could decide the closest election in recent Brazilian history.

In the October 4 first round, Flávio Bolsonaro — son of former President Jair Bolsonaro — won 47.03% of valid votes against Lula's 45.16%, a gap of less than two points that already foreshadowed a nail-biter runoff.

The campaign enters its decisive week with the second televised debate between the two candidates, scheduled for this Friday on the Globo network, where a head-on clash over the economy, security and the country's institutional future is expected.

On Tuesday, Lula submitted to the Electoral Court an authorization to lift his banking and telephone secrecy if Flávio Bolsonaro does the same, a move with which the president seeks to pressure his rival in the final stretch and dispel suspicions about campaign financing.

Sunday's runoff will decide not only Brazil's next president but the direction of Latin America's largest economy at a moment of sharp political polarization and tension with the United States over Washington's tariff policy.

Photo: Pausa

Source: CNN en Español