– Lula and Bolsonaro muster thousands of supporters ahead of election
Brazil’s two presidential favorites are done for now. The first round, this Sunday, might lead to clashes in the event of victory for the left-wing candidate.
Brazil’s two presidential favorites, far-right head of state Jair Bolsonaro and left-wing ex-president Lula, gathered thousands of supporters in the streets of Sao Paulo for their last rallies before the ballot on Sunday. .
Bolsonaro, 67, dressed in a black jacket and without a helmet, led a motorcade to Ibirapuera Park, the green lung of Sao Paulo (southeast), where thousands of people were waiting for him. Along the way, his fans in yellow and green waved Brazilian flags, cheered and chanted “Lula, thief, your place is in jail!” The president greeted them without making a speech, in accordance with electoral law.
“Four years is a very short time to fix everything that went wrong in previous governments, so he needs four more. Bolsonaro is the best president of all time,” said entrepreneur Isabel de Morais, 54, who came to applaud her champion. “We will win in the first round, with 64% of the vote”, launched Eduardo Bolsonaro, the deputy son of the president who keeps saying that the polls are “misleading”.
“Jair, it’s time to go!”
About 5 km away, at almost the same time, thousands of people in red marched on Paulista Avenue, the emblematic artery of Brazil’s economic capital, for a “victory march” organized for Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010). He waved to the crowd from the back of an open truck.
“Brazil, urgent, Lula president!” and “Jair, time to go!” chanted the demonstrators at the rally of the left-wing candidate, who hopes to win the presidency in the first round. “I’m hopeful it will happen,” Ully Kotler, 29, told AFP. “The balance sheet of the Bolsonaro government? A real tragedy.”
“Lula must come back to put an end to what is happening in the country. We have been fighting for a long time for a much fairer, more fraternal society, and Bolsonaro has ruined everything, ”said Anderson Momesso, 52, who came to support the candidate of the Workers’ Party (PT), dressed in a red football shirt, the color of Lula’s political family.
Fake news
The electoral campaign on radio and television has ended, but rallies and the distribution of leaflets are authorized until Saturday evening. This campaign took place under very special conditions, for security reasons: the candidates wore a bulletproof vest and security barriers were placed during the meetings to prevent the crowd from approaching too close to the stage.
False information circulated on the networks on Saturday, claiming for example that it is forbidden to vote while wearing the jersey of the Brazilian national team, popular with Bolsonarists. These last hours of the campaign “will be very tense, everyone will observe the smallest details that might tip the balance one way or the other,” Jairo Nicolau, political scientist at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, told AFP.
Despite these tensions, Saturday’s rallies passed off without incident. The latest survey by the benchmark institute Datafolha on Saturday evening showed Lula still well ahead of voting intentions, with 14 points ahead of Bolsonaro (48% once morest 34%) and 50% of valid votes once morest 36%.
Fears of “trouble”
But the transfer of power might prove difficult in the event of victory on Sunday for the left-wing candidate, with long weeks until the investiture on January 1. Lula admitted Friday at a press conference to fear “trouble” during this transition. Jair Bolsonaro has given many signs that he may not recognize the results in the event of defeat, citing in particular the risk of “fraud”, without providing proof.
Last week, the head of state said it would be “abnormal” if he did not get at least 60% of the vote in the first round. Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, gave his support to Jair Bolsonaro. “I have met many leaders but few as exceptional as your President Bolsonaro,” said Orban in a video posted Saturday morning on the Brazilian president’s Twitter account.
“Let us all vote in peace, security and harmony, with respect, freedom, conscience and responsibility. Together, all Brazilians in the great celebration of democracy”, enjoined for his part the president of the Superior Electoral Court, Alexandre de Moraes, on his Twitter account.
AFP
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