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Polls suggest Lula is the slight favorite to come back for a
third term, capping a remarkable political renaissance after his
jailing on graft convictions that were overturned. But Bolsonaro
outperformed opinion polls in the first-round vote this month,
and many analysts say the election could go either way.
During Friday's free-wheeling debate, the deeply polarizing
figures attacked each other's character and record, accused each
other of lying and refused repeatedly to answer each other's
questions.
Bolsonaro opened the debate by denying reports that he might
unpeg the minimum wage from inflation, announcing instead he
would raise it to 1,400 reais ($260) a month if re-elected, a
move that is not in his government's 2023 budget.
Still, most analysts and focus groups with undecided voters
suggested the president had done little to shake up a race that
polls show broadly stable since Lula led the first round of
voting on Oct. 2 by 5 percentage points.
That result was better for Bolsonaro than most polls had shown,
giving him a boost of momentum to start the month, but the past
two weeks of the campaign have presented headwinds.
On Sunday, one of Bolsonaro's allies opened fire on Federal
Police officers coming to arrest him. A week earlier Bolsonaro
had to defend himself from attack ads after he told an anecdote
about meeting Venezuelan migrant girls in suggestive terms.
In their first head-to-head debate this month, Lula blasted
Bolsonaro's handling of a pandemic in which nearly 700,000
Brazilians have died, while Bolsonaro focused on the graft
scandals that tarnished the reputation of Lula's Workers Party.
On Friday night, both candidates returned repeatedly to Lula's
two terms as president from 2003 to 2010, when high commodity
prices helped to boost the economy and combat poverty. Lula
vowed to revive those boom times, while Bolsonaro suggested
current social programs are more effective.
($1 = 5.29 reais)
(Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Brad Haynes and
William Mallard)
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