SAO PAULO, Oct 25 ― Brazil's ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said yesterday he hopes incumbent Jair Bolsonaro will accept an election loss, as the country enters the final week of a white-knuckle presidential runoff.
“I hope that if I win the elections, he will have a moment of sanity and phone me to accept the election result,” Lula told a press conference in Sao Paulo.
“If Bolsonaro loses and he wants to cry... I lost three elections,” Lula recalled. “Each time I lost, I went home. I didn't keep cursing, being agitated.”
The far-right leader Bolsonaro has repeatedly called into question Brazil's electronic voting system and threatened that he would not quietly accept losing to his leftwing rival.
However, in recent weeks he has toned down his fiery comments as he seeks to woo undecided voters, saying he would accept the result if it were not “abnormal.”
With just days to go until the October 30 vote, the two bitter rivals are scrambling to win over undecided voters in an extremely tight race.
Lula has 52 per cent of the vote heading into the runoff, to 48 per cent for Bolsonaro, according to a poll released last week by the Datafolha institute.
The political adversaries will engage in a final head-to-head debate on Friday.
“The strategy of any candidate is first to try and convince the people who did not vote for any reason to show up and vote. To try to win every vote, make it easy for people to vote,” said Lula.
“This election will define if we want to live in a democracy or under chaos or neofascism. That is what is at stake. I hope people choose democracy.”
Brazil has been subjected to a bruising and polarizing election campaign marked by vicious insults and disinformation from both sides.
Bolsonaro is seeking a second term after a four-year mandate in which he was excoriated for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his controversial statements on women, the press, minorities, and perceived enemies such as the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile Lula, Brazil's president from 2003 to 2010, is seeking a comeback after spending 18 months in jail on controversial, since-overturned charges stemming from the investigation of a massive graft scheme centred on state-run oil company Petrobras.
Both have millions of fervent supporters, but many Brazilians are merely voting against the candidate they least dislike.
Lula had been seen as a clear favourite in the first round on October 2. But Bolsonaro performed better than polls suggested, with 43 per cent of the vote, to 48 per cent for Lula. ― AFP
