159 Million Eligible to Vote in Brazilian Runoff as Polls Show Dead Heat

Tens of thousands of people wearing red crowded a 2.5-mile stretch of Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, one day before Brazilian voters choose between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro. Activists unfurled a banner reading "WE ARE GOING TO TURN THIS AROUND!" during the procession under strong sun.

Close to 159 million Brazilians are eligible to cast ballots Sunday. The two candidates sit level in polls after Bolsonaro took the first round on 4 October with 47% against Lula's 45%.

No candidate who has lost the first round has ever recovered to win the runoff since democracy returned to Brazil in the 1980s, so a Lula victory on that path would be a first.

Most analysts treat Bolsonaro as the narrow favorite. His father, Jair Bolsonaro, held the presidency from 2019 to 2022, and the son campaigns on confronting violent crime. Lula has closed the gap in recent polling as scandals have surfaced around his opponent. The magazine Piauí reported last week that Flávio Bolsonaro attended a 2020 boat party with sex workers and vaccine lobbyists seeking terms with his father's government during the height of the coronavirus outbreak.

Jair Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election to Lula. Some participants in Saturday's march said they view the contest as a test of that outcome. Restaurateur Marta Moraes, 59, said she opposed "Bolsonarismo" rather than the right as a whole, and said she lost four relatives to what she called Jair Bolsonaro's neglect during the pandemic.

Organizers said the WhatsApp group "Lula's Army," formed after the first round, counts 10 million members. Retired teacher Isabella Gaze, 64, said: "This isn't a normal election." Truck driver Josias Silva, 61, carried a homemade sign reading "Lula re-elected. Tomorrow will be a new day." He predicted Lula would take more than 60% of the vote, though polls point to a much closer race.

Bolsonaro supporters gathered in the Praça da Liberdade in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, wearing Brazil's yellow football jersey and waving Brazilian flags alongside US flags. Minas Gerais holds the country's second-largest electorate, and no candidate has won the presidency without carrying the state. Bolsonaro led there by just under 5% in the first round.

Shooting club owner Antonio Carlos Costa Jr, 59, said Jair Bolsonaro gave citizens the right to defend themselves and that his son would do the same. Lula tightened firearm rules after his predecessor loosened them. Architect Erika Cavalcante, 43, carried a sign reading "Don't let the mobsters win."

Voting stations open Sunday. The two candidates are tied in current polling.