Far-right former soldier the favourite in Brazil poll
Brazilians began casting their ballots on Sunday in the country’s most divisive presidential election in years, with Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right politician promising an iron-fisted crackdown on crime, the firm favourite in the first round.
Surveys suggest that the 63year-old former paratrooper, who wants to cut Brazil’s spiralling debt through sweeping privatisations and embrace the US and Israel, could count on more than one in three voters. However, at least as many in the 147-million-strong electorate reject the federal legislator.
Bolsonaro is known for repeated offensive comments against women, gays and the poor, and for lauding the military dictatorship that ran Brazil just three decades ago.
If he gets more than 50% of the vote to lead the field of 13 candidates, he will win the presidency outright, otherwise a run-off will be held.
Analysts say a first-round victory for Bolsonaro is possible, though unlikely. The last surveys released late on Saturday credited Bolsonaro with 36% against 22% for his nearest rival, leftist former Sao Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad.
With blank and invalid votes stripped out, Bolsonaro could pocket 40-41% of the vote to 25% for Haddad, polling firms Ibope and Datafolha said.
A run-off was seen as too close to call, given the two-point margin of error, though Bolsonaro was seen as having a small edge.
Voting took place under tight security and initial results were expected shortly after the last polling stations close two hours before midnight in the western Amazonian state of Acre.
Haddad, 55, has picked up support that still exists for leftist former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Workers Party icon jailed for corruption who was declared ineligible from making a comeback because of a failed appeal.
Brazil lived through its economic heyday during Lula’s 2003-2010 presidency but plunged into its worst-ever recession under his chosen successor, Dilma Rousseff.
She was impeached and booted from office in 2016 for financial wrongdoing.
Many blame the Workers Party for the country’s current economic malaise.