Brazilians are voting in a presidential runoff between incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in what’s become the country’s most significant election since the return of democracy almost four decades ago.
Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. Sunday and will close at 5 p.m. local time, with the governorships for states including Sao Paulo, the most populous, also being decided. Initial results are more likely to show Bolsonaro is leading because votes in the southern regions are counted first, where he has more of a following.
Over 156 million voters are choosing between two starkly different visions for their country.
The man universally known as Lula, 77, who governed Brazil between 2003 and 2011, has stumped on memories of past prosperity, and touts his previous experience in office as a means to heal the nation’s deep divisions and end hunger.
Bolsonaro, 67, a God-fearing, former army captain whose style is frequently compared to Donald Trump’s, draws on deep support from Brazil’s powerful agribusiness sector and evangelical community. He pledges to bring Christian values to the top levels of power while cutting bureaucratic red tape to spur growth.
The clash between the country’s two largest political personalities has resulted in a bitter, and at times violent contest, that’s raised concern among electoral authorities and international allies. Early indications suggest that tension may have spilled over to election day.
Police are stopping buses in what some interpret as an attempt to stop voters from reaching polling stations. There were more than 500 stoppages as of 12:35 p.m. Folha de S.Paulo newspaper reported, 70% more than in the first-round vote.
Alexandre de Moraes, the president of the country’s electoral court, ordered the head of Brazil’s roadway police to explain why he’s conducting operations on public transportation, when the court had prohibited them on voting day.
Both candidates allege their opponent will do irreparable harm to Latin America’s largest economy. Bolsonaro claims his leftist rival will throw Brazil down a path like Venezuela or Nicaragua. Lula says the far-right president will hollow out democratic institutions if granted another four-year term.
Early voters
Fernando Dante de Almeida, 67, a retired business owner, lined up at a polling station in Rio de Janeiro’s tony Ipanema neighborhood, wearing a homemade green-and-yellow shirt declaring his support for Bolsonaro.
“I like the frankness of how he speaks. He may curse a lot, but what you get is real and he is surrounded by a team that has done the country good,” he said. “There was so much theft during Lula’s reign. He claimed he was helping the poor, but what he really did was steal.”
Across the divide, some voters said they were simply picking the least worst option.
Memories of corruption and excess when Lula’s Workers’ Party was ruling weighed heavily on the minds of many. Others worried aloud about Bolsonaro’s authoritarian tact and constant clashes with institutions like the Supreme Court.
“Lula was terrible,” said Marcio Leon Nahon, a 45-year-old lawyer, out to vote with his wife and daughter. “But I prefer the man who stole from me, rather than one who will steal my right to vote in the next election.”
In Rio’s industrial north side, home to the city’s aging factories and much of its working class, voters were quick to criticize the president’s economic track record. Many said they were stung hard by high prices of staples like rice and beef.
“What has increased in these four years is hunger, misery and people living in the street,” said Alessandra de Oliviera, 48, a homemaker. “Lula is a president who actually cares for the poor.”
Grenades
Polls leading into Sunday’s vote show Lula holding a slim lead, but Bolsonaro surprised pollsters with a far stronger-than-expected showing in the first-round vote on Oct. 2. Since then, he’s tried to improve his standing by launching a slew of last-minute economic measures, and has been helped by an improving economic outlook.
But a series of campaign blunders, including a violent incident where a onetime lawmaker and staunch ally of the president fired a rifle and threw grenades at the police sapped Bolsonaro’s momentum in final week of the race.
Days before Sunday’s vote, Bolsonaro intensified attacks on electoral authorities, claiming his campaign was not getting equal access to the airwaves, stoking fears that he may be planning to contest the vote. He has previously said he won’t step down if fraud impacts the results, setting up a potential repeat of what followed the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Yet on Friday night the president said he will respect the result and that whoever gets one more vote will win the election.
Both the current and former president finished their campaigns in heavily populated states of the Southeast. Lula and Bolsonaro voted early Sunday morning. The leftist cast his vote in Sao Bernardo do Campo, a suburb of Sao Paulo, where he launched his political career as a trade unionist. Bolsonaro voted at a military school in Rio.
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(With assistance from Daniel Carvalho, Isadora Calumby and Simone Iglesias.)
