Lula, Bolsonaro close Brazil campaigns as tight election heads for runoff

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro have wrapped up their campaigns ahead of Sunday’s presidential election, with polls showing Lula maintaining a lead but the race tightening, Al Jazeera reports.

Lula, 80, ended his campaign on Saturday with a march through Sao Paulo, Brazil’s economic hub, where his campaign said a record crowd gathered for his final rally.

“We’re going to win the elections in the first round tomorrow,” Lula told supporters, portraying the election as a choice between “democracy and barbarism” and vowing to defeat the far right.

The president has also sought to make national sovereignty a central theme of his campaign, warning against what he described as potential US “meddling” in Brazil’s election.

Flavio Bolsonaro, meanwhile, led a motorcycle caravan through towns in Sao Paulo state before holding a rally in Rio de Janeiro, adopting a campaign style associated with his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro.

“I am convinced that everything is in place for us to win this election in the first round,” the 45-year-old Bolsonaro said.

The younger Bolsonaro has campaigned with a portrait of his father, who is serving a 27-year prison sentence for attempting to overturn his defeat to Lula in the 2022 presidential election.

US President Donald Trump has not formally endorsed Flavio Bolsonaro but has said he is watching the Brazilian election “very closely”.

Lula’s supporters have cited Trump’s interest as evidence of potential US interference, while some Bolsonaro supporters frustrated with Brazil’s cost-of-living pressures have said they would welcome US pressure if it could bring political change.

Saturday’s polls showed Lula still ahead but with a narrowing margin, making an outright victory for either candidate unlikely. If neither secures a majority, the two leading candidates will face each other in a runoff on October 25.

The election is expected to be significantly tighter than Lula’s 2022 victory, when he defeated Jair Bolsonaro by less than two percentage points.

Meanwhile, Flavio Bolsonaro’s campaign has come under scrutiny over the financing of Dark Horse, a film about his father. The biopic was reportedly financed by a jailed banker linked to one of Brazil’s largest financial scandals, and Flavio is under investigation over the matter.

Brazil’s Supreme Court also authorised a federal police investigation in April into whether Flavio Bolsonaro made defamatory statements about Lula.

Flavio has pledged to seek his father’s release if elected and has echoed his father’s unsubstantiated claims questioning the reliability of Brazil’s electronic voting system. Analysts say such rhetoric could lay the groundwork for challenging the election result if he loses.

Nearly 160 million registered voters will also elect lawmakers, governors and senators alongside the president on Sunday.

The election comes as right-wing political forces have gained ground across several Latin American countries in recent months.