With just one day before Brazilians decide their president for the next four years, the two remaining candidates are focusing last efforts in voter-packed areas in Brazil’s southeast.
Incumbent Jair Bolsonaro is holding campaign events in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais state, including a motorcade with his supporters.
The state is traditionally seen as a must-win for presidential hopefuls, as all previous Brazilian presidents won the tally there when they were elected. The latest polls have shown Bolsonaro trailing his opponent among Minas Gerais voters.
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on the other hand, is in the country’s most populous state, São Paulo, where he will attend a campaign event in the state capital’s landmark Avenida Paulista. Polls show Lula behind Bolsonaro in voting intentions in the state.
The two candidates faced off in a final debate held by Globo TV on Friday evening, although it is unlikely the meeting will cause major shifts in the presidential race. Polls show more than 90% of people have already made up their minds, leaving a narrow portion of voters to be swayed.
The debate was heated, with the candidates exchanging accusations of being corrupt and liars.
Lula seems to have performed better, at least based on social media reaction. Monitoring done by Quaest showed Bolsonaro received 64% of negative mentions on social media during the debate. Lula got 49%.
However, a poll published Saturday morning by MDA shows Bolsonaro inching closer to Lula, with the candidates technically tied. Lula’s voting intentions marked 51.1% of valid votes, compared to 53.5% on Oct. 16, while Bolsonaro scored 48.9%, up from 46.5% previously. The valid votes exclude blank and null votes.
MDA interviewed 2,002 voters in person between Oct. 26-28. The poll has a 2.2 percentage point margin of error, with 95% confidence level.
