Tens of thousands of supporters of Brazil's leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, streamed onto Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach on Saturday for a giant rally they hope will propel him towards a historic election fightback against his far-right rival, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, The Guardian reported. Under a fierce sun, red-clad crowds packed the 2.5-mile beach on the final day of campaigning before Sunday's presidential runoff.
Source: The Guardian
Lula waved a large Brazilian flag from a campaign truck as the carnival-like procession moved along the beachfront, agency reports said. Activists unfurled an enormous yellow and green banner declaring: “WE ARE GOING TO TURN THIS AROUND!” Many marchers were part of the so-called “Lula's Army”, a WhatsApp group of about 10 million members created after the first round in the hope of overturning the result, The Guardian reported.
Source: The Guardian / AFP reports
Bolsonaro's supporters held their own final rallies, including in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais state. Thousands gathered in the palm-lined Praça da Liberdade plaza, many dressed in Brazil's yellow football jersey and waving Brazilian flags — and many United States flags too — while hundreds of bikers in yellow roared their support in the city, reports said. Minas Gerais has Brazil's second-largest electorate after São Paulo and is a key bellwether: no candidate has ever won the presidency without it, and Bolsonaro led there by just under 5% in the first round.
Source: The Guardian
“The people have woken up,” said Josias Silva, a 61-year-old truck driver at the Copacabana rally, who carried a homemade sign reading: “Lula re-elected. Tomorrow will be a new day.” He voiced confidence that the 80-year-old president would win a fourth non-consecutive term. Marta Moraes, a 59-year-old restaurateur, said the vote was not about left versus right: “We've nothing against the right … what we're against is Bolsonarismo.”
Source: The Guardian
Nearly 159 million Brazilians are eligible to vote on Sunday. Flávio Bolsonaro won the first round on 4 October by 47% to 45%, and the polls remain tied — a Datafolha survey this week put both candidates at 50% of voting intentions, while a CNT/MDA poll released on Saturday put Bolsonaro at 50.7% and Lula at 49.3% of valid votes, inside the margin of error. Never since Brazil's return to democracy in the 1980s has the first-round loser managed to bounce back and win a runoff.
Source: The Guardian / agency reports
The stakes reach beyond the two campaigns. Flávio Bolsonaro's father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election to Lula, The Guardian reported, and many Lula supporters said they fear he could be released if his son wins. Analysts quoted in reports see Flávio Bolsonaro as the slight favourite, having sold himself as a leader who will tackle violent crime with an iron fist, while Lula's camp says he has regained the initiative in the final days. Polls open across Brazil on Sunday morning.