SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilians began voting Sunday in a high-stakes presidential election pitting the incumbent against each other Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva against Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, ideological adversaries who are each seen as having a chance of achieving total victory.
If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, the top two vote-getters will head to a runoff on Oct. 25 in the Latin American economic powerhouse. Ten other candidates are expected to receive a much lower number of votes on Sunday.
Bolsonaro, 45, is the son of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro and an ally of US President Donald Trump. Lula, who at 80 is one of the oldest heads of stateis running in his seventh presidential election and has strengthened Brazil’s ties with Beijing.
Trump allies found support in recent years in some Latin American countries, including Argentina, Colombia and Peru.
Nearly 159 million Brazilians are eligible to vote in this tense political confrontation.
Bolsonaro joins the Trump alliance
Where Bolsonaro relied on his ideological alliance with Trump, Lula criticized Washington.
The outgoing president has often mentioned the risks of American intervention in the Brazilian elections after the Trump administration imposed high customs duties on Brazilian exportsrevoked the visa of country ambassador in Washington and sanctioned a Supreme Court justice who presided over the investigation that resulted in the conviction of Jair BolsonaroLula’s predecessor.
Flávio Bolsonaro praised his proximity to the White Housealthough he denies that his campaign received help from the US government. He insisted that Brazil must reach better deals with the Trump administration, including the economy of rare minerals. Brazil estimates that its deposits can reach 21 million tonnes, second only to China. Bolsonaro also campaigned to free his father from his 27-year prison sentence for attempted coup and to return him to politics.
“Brazil needs change. Brazil cannot bear so much suffering,” he told reporters at the polling center in Rio de Janeiro, where he cast his vote on Sunday.
Brazilians will also elect 27 state governors, members of state legislatures, all 513 federal members of the lower house of congress and 54 of the country’s 81 senators in Sunday’s vote.
Last minute mistakes could decide the race
Thomas Traumann, a political consultant based in Rio de Janeiro, says last-minute mistakes by a candidate or his allies could make all the difference for undecided voters.
” Polarization in Brazil has created a trap. There is no third candidate. “There are only two options, and they are fighting in an atmosphere that is getting worse and worse,” Traumann said. “It’s much more of a competition of accusations than a competition of propositions.”
Four years ago, Lula beat Jair Bolsonaro by 2.1 million votes, a margin of just under 2 percentage points. At the time, Brazilians were unhappy with the then-president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, his repeated threats against democracy, his attacks on the electronic voting system and the poor shape of the national economy while inflation was rising.
Today, the incumbent operator faces an uphill battle due to an affordability crisis and a corruption scandal who trapped the same the justice which led the investigation into Bolsonaro.
Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo, says some voters are growing tired of Lula, who is seeking a fourth non-consecutive presidential term. He is one of the continent’s oldest presidents, along with Trump and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, both 80 years old.
“Many people in Lula’s campaign did not expect such difficult elections a few weeks ago, and it is clear to them that the current elections are an uphill battle and that the next ones, without Lula, could be even more so,” Melo said.
Bolsonaro has seen his political career marred by several corruption accusations, the latest of them involving a disgraced banker who was paying him. million dollarsallegedly to produce a film about his father’s life. More recently, he has been criticized by Roman Catholics who fear he is making too many concessions to his evangelical base.
___
Associated Press writer Eléonore Hughes in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Gn world
