RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil —
Brazilians voted Sunday in a polarizing
presidential election, with leftist front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva vowing
to get Brazil “back to normal” amid fears far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro
will not accept a defeat.
اضافة اعلان
Lula, who led
Brazil in the 2000s and is seeking to make a comeback at 76, voted in his
bastion in the southeastern state of Sao Paulo, saying he wanted “a country at
peace” after four years under Bolsonaro.
“We don’t want
more hate, more discord,” said the ex-president (2003–2010), kissing the paper
slip given to voters after casting his ballot in a dark suit and button-up
shirt.
Bolsonaro, for
his part, voted in
Rio de Janeiro in a T-shirt with the yellow-and-green of the
national flag, telling reporters the results must be respected if elections are
“clean.”
The 67-year-old
incumbent, who has repeatedly alleged Brazil’s electronic voting system is plagued
by fraud — without evidence — did not directly answer journalists’ questions on
whether he would respect the result if he loses, saying he was confident he
would win despite opinion polls showing Lula with a double-digit lead.
The campaign has
left the Latin American giant deeply divided.
Lula went into
Sunday leading Bolsonaro with 50 percent of valid votes to 36 percent,
according to a final poll from the Datafolha institute.
This put Lula
within arm’s reach of the outcome needed to win outright and avoid a runoff on
October 30: half of valid votes cast, plus one.
Bolsonaro’s
attacks on the voting system have raised fears of a Brazilian version of the
riots at the
US Capitol last year after his political role model, former
president Donald Trump, refused to accept his election loss.
Trump gave
Bolsonaro a last-minute endorsement, calling him a “fantastic leader” and “one
of the great presidents of any country in the world” in a video posted on
social media.
‘Some kind of
turmoil’
Casting her vote in the capital, Brasilia, housewife Aldeyze dos Santos,
40, told AFP she supports Bolsonaro because “I’m a Christian, I only vote for
candidates who are for what’s in the Bible.”
In Rio, 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.
Political analyst
Adriano Laureno said it is likely Bolsonaro will try to contest the result if
he loses.
“But that doesn’t
mean he’ll succeed,” added Laureno, of consulting firm Prospectiva.
“The
international community will recognize the result quickly. ... There might be
some kind of turmoil and uncertainty around the transition, but there’s no risk
of a democratic rupture.”
More than 500,000
security-force members were deployed to keep the peace Sunday, the government
said.
Many voters are
deeply disillusioned with both contenders — and the lack of alternatives — in a
race where none of the other nine candidates managed to break out of single
digits in the polls.
Brazil’s 156 million
voters are also electing the lower house of Congress, one-third of the senate,
and governors, and state legislators in all 27 states.
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