Voters in Brazil to choose between Lula and Bolsonaro's son

Voters in Brazil to choose between Lula and Bolsonaro's son

Brazilians head to the polls on Sunday to elect their next president in a tightly contested run-off.

The contest is between the 80-year-old incumbent, left-winger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is seeking a fourth non-consecutive term in office, and right-wing senator Flávio Bolsonaro, 45.

Bolsonaro is the son of former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup after losing the last election in 2022.

This is Bolsonaro's election to lose after he finished first in the opening round of voting on 4 October, which US President Donald Trump described as a "very big" victory.

No candidate who has trailed after the first round has ever managed to erase the deficit and win in the second round.

Bolsonaro's backers were ecstatic at his final campaign events, convinced he would bring change to Brazil through his promised hard-line crackdown on organised crime, along with tax and public spending cuts.

He campaigned on the eve of the vote in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, a state that has been essential for any presidential hopeful since the 1980s.

"The time is almost here," Bolsonaro told supporters in a social media video.

"There are only a few hours left before we shape the future of our nation for the next 30 or 40 years."

He has also promised to free his father, who is currently serving his sentence under house arrest because of ill health.

In Barra de Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, where Jair Bolsonaro has a home, Bolsonaro supporters gathered in national colours to back him.

"Brazil needs change, and Flávio is the person that represents that today, after so many years of the Left destroying the economy and the country," one told BBC News.

Another said the thing she liked most about Flávio Bolsonaro was his pledge to "end violence in Brazil, end terrorism, narco-trafficking, and to reduce interest rates".

Since Bolsonaro's first-round win, Lula supporters have staged large rallies in his favour in an effort to lift turnout after 33 million people did not vote earlier this month.

On Saturday, Lula told a huge crowd on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach that this election was about "sovereignty" and that people would choose between the one who kissed the Brazilian flag or the American flag.

"We're going to win the election for one simple reason: it's true that the people want change [but] they want to move forward," he said. "They don't want to go backward."

A supporter named Roberta told BBC News: "This movement is to show we have strength. We've woken up, we're coming to the street to make a difference and turn the vote around."

A man wearing Brazil's national yellow and green football shirt said Bolsonaro supporters had "appropriated" the jersey, but Lula supporters were taking it back.

Lula and his Workers' Party have framed this election as a "battle for democracy", arguing that Jair Bolsonaro's conviction for coup-plotting shows that "Bolsonarismo" is a threat to Brazil's democratic institutions.

During Lula's latest term in office, relations with Trump have been rocky.

Lula has insisted that Brazil "does not fit into anyone's backyard", an apparent reference to what Trump has called the "Donroe Doctrine" - his administration's national security strategy asserting that US dominance in the Western hemisphere should not be interfered with.

Bolsonaro, meanwhile, says that working with Washington to fight powerful criminal gangs - which hold enormous sway in parts of Brazil - will restore the state's sovereignty to gang-controlled areas.

He has also been describing the Workers' Party as corrupt, pointing voters to the huge financial scandals that dogged the party for years and turned many voters against it.

Lula plans to be in São Paulo to watch the results on Sunday evening, while Bolsonaro is due to be in the capital Brasília - where his father is also under house arrest.