BRAZIL VOTES TO CHOOSE NEW PRESIDENT
BRASILIA : Brazilians cast ballots on Sunday in their most divisive presidential election in years, with Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right politician promising an ironfisted crackdown on crime, the firm favourite in the first round.
Bolsonaro, who has surged in the polls since being stabbed during a campaign rally September 6, predicted a first-round victory as he cast his ballot in western Rio de Janeiro.
While that is possible, analysts say the 63-year-old former paratrooper is more likely to fall short of a majority in Sunday’s voting. If so, the contest will go to a run-off on October 28 between the top two candidates.
Bolsonaro’s nearest rival is former Sao Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad, a stand-in for former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is serving a 12-year sentence for corruption.
Haddad was greeted by neighbours banging pots and pans in protest as he arrived to vote in an upscale district of Brazil’s largest city, while supporters chanted their support.
Surveys suggest Bolsonaro, who wants to cut spiraling debt through sweeping privatisations and embrace the United States and Israel, could count on more than one in three voters in the vast Latin American nation.
At least as many in the 147million-strong electorate reject the veteran federal lawmaker, however. Bolsonaro is known for repeated offensive comments against women, gays and the poor, and for lauding the military dictatorship Brazil shucked off just three decades ago.