Lula: I hope Bolsonaro accepts the verdict of the ballot box on Sunday

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“I hope that if I win the election, he will have a moment of sanity and call me to acknowledge the result,” said centre-left former president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.

Center-left former president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday he hoped outgoing far-right head of state Jair Bolsonaro would accept the verdict of the ballot box if he lost Sunday’s runoff in Brazil’s presidential election.

“I hope that if I win the election, he will have a moment of sanity and call me to acknowledge the result,” the 76-year-old historic leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) said during a press conference in Sao Paulo (southeast).

“If Bolsonaro loses and wants to cry (…) I have lost three electoral contests,” Lula continued. “Every time I knew defeat, I went home. I neither cursed nor blamed anyone but myself,” he added.

Mr Bolsonaro has repeatedly questioned the reliability of Brazil’s electronic voting system and has threatened not to accept the result if he loses.

However, in recent days he appeared to tone down as he tries to attract the last undecideds, assuring that he will accept the result if nothing “unnatural” happens.

The two rivals are expected to clash again in the final pre-election televised debate on Friday.

“The strategy of each candidate is in principle to try to convince those who did not go to vote (in the first round), for one reason or another. To try to win every vote, to make sure that it will be easy for the people to go and vote”, ruled the former president (2003-2010) yesterday.

These elections “will show whether we want to live in democracy or chaos, neo-fascism. This is at stake. I hope that the citizens will choose democracy,” Lula said.

Polls want the former president to remain the favorite of the contest (he leads with 52% against 48% according to the Datafolha institute, with 52% against 46.2% according to Atlas Intel, with 50% against 43% according to IPEC). However, Mr. Bolsonaro garnered a much higher percentage in the first round than the polls gave him credit for (he received 43%).

IPEC poll: Ex-president Lula maintains 7-point lead over incumbent Jair Bolsonaro ahead of 2nd round

Brazil’s centre-left former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva leads incumbent Jair Bolsonaro by seven points as the race to Sunday’s (October 30) run-off election has entered its final stretch, a rolling IPEC poll showed — of the former IBOPE— the findings of which were made public yesterday Monday.

The two rivals’ ratings were unchanged from last week, with Lula garnering 50% of the vote and Mr Bolsonaro 43%.

The IPEC poll was conducted using personal interviews among a representative sample of 3,008 voters across the country from October 22 to 24. The margin of statistical error is ±2%.

IPEC is among the polling institutes that have come under fire in Brazil for being shown to have underestimated Jair Bolsonaro ahead of the October 2 first round, when he received 43%.

Atlas Intel poll: Lula slightly widens his lead over Bolsonaro

Brazil’s center-left former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva slightly widened his lead over current head of state, far-right Jair Bolsonaro, in an Atlas Intel poll ahead of the second round of the presidential election that opened today.

According to the latest poll, Lula secures 52% of voting intentions against Bolsonaro’s 46.2%. By comparison, Lula had 51.1% to his opponent’s 46.5% in a poll by the same company two weeks ago.

The Atlas Intel poll was conducted ahead of Sunday’s episode starring a former lawmaker and Bolsonaro supporter who opened fire and threw grenades at police officers in an operation to arrest him for violating the terms of his house arrest .

“The poll showed good news for Lula,” said Atlas Intel CEO Andrei Roman. The change in the percentages of the two gladiators for the presidency of Brazil was, however, less than a margin of statistical error.

RES-EMP

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