Trump-Backed Bolsonaro Faces Former Leftist President Lula

Topline

Brazilian voters are heading to the polls on Sunday for the first round of a polarizing presidential election in which right-wing incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, endorsed by former President Donald Trump, will face off against former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Towels with the images of presidential candidates Jair Bolsonaro and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are … [+] seen for sale.

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

Polls show Lula (who served as president of Brazil from 2003 to 2010) leading Bolsonaro (who is running for a second term) by 10 to 15 percentage points.

The 67-year-old Bolsonaro has pushed claims of election fraud without evidence and suggested on several occasions he may not concede if he loses, reinforcing those remarks Sunday in a video posted before he cast his vote, in which he said if the country has “clean elections,” he will win “with at least 60% of the votes,” according to Reuters.

Lula, who is 76, has run on a platform of increasing taxes for the wealthy, raising the country’s minimum wage and bolstering social programs including monthly cash vouchers, while Bolsonaro has also pledged to offer cash programs for families in need, and has focused on tax cuts, abortion opposition and addressing crime.

Their environmental policies also differ: Bolsonaro has advocated for more mining, ranching and farming in the Brazilian Amazon, often drawing scorn from environmental groups, while Lula has pledged to stop illegal mining and fight against deforestation.

The race includes nine other candidates, including a former governor and senator, all of whom lack substantial support, according to the polls.

Tangent

Lula was legally barred from running for president in 2018, after he was sentenced to a lengthy prison term on corruption and money laundering charges. Prosecutors alleged Lula received more than a million dollars in bribes—including in the form of a luxury apartment—in exchange for contracts with Brazilian construction giant OAS, a subcontractor to state energy company Petrobras, part of a broader investigation that Lula’s supporters argued was rigged. He was freed in 2019 after the Supreme Court ruled defendants should only be imprisoned if they’ve exhausted all their appeals, and his conviction was thrown out last year after the Supreme Court decided the judge who convicted Lula was biased, freeing him to run for office again this year.

Key Background

Bolsonaro, a former army captain who has been nicknamed the “Tropical Trump,” has often parallelled the former U.S. president. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Bolsonaro minimized the threat of the coronavirus and pushed back against preventative measures like lockdowns and masks, and he has sought to brand himself as a tough-on-crime and socially conservative leader. Bolsonaro was also one of few international leaders to support Trump’s false allegations of fraud in the aftermath of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Trump announced last month he was backing Bolsonaro in his re-election bid, writing on Truth Social Bolsonaro has “done a GREAT job for the wonderful people of Brazil,” and that “when I was President of the U.S., there was no other country leader who called me more than Jair.” A former trade unionist, Lula served as president for two terms, and he grew popular as he oversaw a period of strong economic growth, though a wide-ranging investigation into corruption and influence-peddling called “Operation Car Wash” began to look into him several years after he left office. The election comes as Brazil’s economy makes a slow recovery from the pandemic and grapples with inflation. If Lula wins, Brazil will be the latest Latin American nation whose voters have thrown their support behind leftist leaders: Chile elected 35-year-old Gabriel Boric last year, and Gustavo Petro was elected to serve as Colombia’s first leftist president in June.

What To Watch For

Results are expected within hours after the polls close at 4 p.m. ET (5 p.m. local time). If either candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, they’ll win the presidency outright, but otherwise, the top two candidates will head to a runoff on October 30 if nobody secures a majority of votes.

Surprising Fact

Voting is compulsory for more than 156 million citizens in Brazil between the ages of 18 to 70, including those who live abroad. Voter turnout was nearly 80% in the 2018 presidential election.

Trump-Backed Bolsonaro Faces Former Leftist President Lula—Here’s What To Know