Lula supporters fill Copacabana on eve of Brazil's runoff with Flávio Bolsonaro
Tens of thousands of supporters of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva packed Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, October 24, on the eve of Brazil's presidential runoff. The beach is 2.5 miles long, and according to The Guardian, the crowd filled much of it. On the same day, Lula and his opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro, each held a final rally in a major city, according to Euronews.
The vote is on Sunday, October 25. A runoff is a second round between the two leading candidates, held when no one wins more than half of the valid votes in the first round. Nearly 159 million Brazilians are eligible to vote.
Lula, who is 80, is seeking a fourth presidential term that is not back-to-back with his earlier ones. He governed Brazil as its leftwing president. Flávio Bolsonaro is a far-right senator and the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who served from 2019 to 2022.
The first round, held on October 4, was close. Flávio Bolsonaro won 47% of the vote to Lula's 45%, according to the electoral figures reported by Reuters. That amounted to 56,085,592 votes for Flávio Bolsonaro and 53,808,066 for Lula. Other candidates together took 7.8%, and neither leader passed 50%.
Polls ahead of the runoff have shown a tight contest. A Datafolha poll cited on October 22 put Flávio Bolsonaro at 47% and Lula at 45%, and a Nexus poll commissioned by BTG Pactual, published on October 19, had Flávio Bolsonaro at 46.5% and Lula at 45.9%. The Guardian reported that the two were tied in polling as the final days of the campaign began.
The campaign has also included a sharp allegation. The Brazilian magazine Piauí claimed in October that Flávio Bolsonaro attended a boat party during Brazil's 2020 coronavirus outbreak, with sex workers and vaccine lobbyists seeking a deal with his father's government present, according to the Guardian.
Earlier in the campaign, Brazil cut its work week to 40 hours, a change the Guardian described as a win for Lula ahead of the runoff. Free radio and television campaign advertising for the second round ended on October 23. On election day, the electronic ballot boxes will offer fewer voting options than they did in the first round.
