Tense Election in Brazil as Bolsonaro vs. Lula Presidential Runoff Heats up

In a tense election on Sunday, Brazilian voters will decide whether to re-elect far-right President Jair Bolsonaro or to put former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva back in government.

Both candidates have a second chance because of the close race.

After a presidency tainted by the pandemic, Bolsonaro has vowed to consolidate a dramatic conservative swing in Brazilian politics. As he recalls the rising prosperity of his presidency from 2003 to 2010, prior to the Workers Party being tarnished by corruption scandals, Lula pledges greater social and environmental responsibility.

It is anticipated that 120 million voters will punch their selections into electronic voting machines that Bolsonaro has criticised as being susceptible to fraud without providing any evidence, which has led some to worry that he may refuse to concede defeat like his ideological ally and former U.S. President Donald Trump did.

That has heightened tensions in Brazil's most divisive race since it returned to democracy in 1985 following a military dictatorship that Bolsonaro, a former army captain, evokes with nostalgia and Lula, a former union leader, battled against.