Reports coming in from Brazil has revealed that the Brazilians have been voting today, Sunday in their polarising presidential polls which sees the leftist front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva coming head to head with the incumbent while hoping to win in a single round amid some fears that the far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro will not accept a defeat.
The polls had also opened at 8:00 am (1100 GMT) for eight hours of balloting with an early trickle of voters who had dutifully decked out in the red colors of Lula’s Workers’ Party, or the green-and-yellow of Brazil’s national flag that Bolsonaro has claimed as his own.
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“I’m a Christian, I only vote for candidates who are for what’s in the Bible, so I’m voting for Bolsonaro,” housewife Aldeyze dos Santos, 40, told AFP in Brasilia, the capital.
In Rio de Janeiro, retired psychologist Katia Ferrari, 67, said: “I hate Bolsonaro.”
“In Lula’s time, things were much better, no matter if he stole… everyone steals,” she said in an allusion to Lula’s controversial graft conviction, later overturned.
The campaign which has also left the Latin American giant deeply divided, with the former president of Brazi Lula (2003-2010) who is currently leading against the ex-army captain Bolsonaro with 50 percent of valid votes to 36 percent, according to a final poll from the Datafolha institute released Saturday evening.
The figures which had also put Lula within arm’s reach of the score needed to win outright and avoid a runoff on October 30: half the valid votes, plus one.
Bolsonaro, known for his combative style, has repeatedly said “only God” can remove him from office, attacked supposed fraud in Brazil’s electronic voting system, and vowed his re-election bid can have just three outcomes: “prison, death or victory.”
Lula, who is the charismatic but tarnished ex-president is also seeking to stage a comeback at 76, and he has revealed that he fears the incumbent will create “turmoil” if he loses — a concern heard often in Brazil heading into election day.
Bolsonaro’s attacks on the Brazillian voting system have also raised fears of a Brazilian version of the riots that erupted at the United States Capitol last year after his political role model, former president Donald Trump had refused to accept his election loss.