Thousands rally for Lula and Bolsonaro on eve of tight Brazil vote

RIO DE JANEIRO: Copacabana beach turned red for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as hundreds of bikers revved their engines for right-winger Flavio Bolsonaro on Saturday, the eve of Brazil's nail-biter election.

Tens of thousands of supporters flooded the streets as the incumbent and his rival wrap up a bitter campaign that has left Latin America's biggest nation more polarized than ever.

Lula, who turns 81 next week, jumped up and down on the back of a campaign truck, waving a massive Brazilian flag as he made his way through throngs of supporters wearing the red of his Workers' Party (PT).

"The people must choose: either someone who kisses the national flag, or someone who kisses the American flag," Lula told the crowd.

Sunday's runoff will determine whether Brazil remains one of Latin America's few leftist nations or joins a regional lurch to the right championed by US President Donald Trump, a Bolsonaro ally.

Bolsonaro, son of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, took a shock first-round lead with 47 percent of the vote over Lula's 45 percent.

"I think we needed that scare," actor Bruna Mascarenhas, 30, told AFP in Sao Paulo, Lula's stop after Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro.

"If we had won in the first round... we wouldn't have mobilised as much as we did," she said.

The political left jolted awake after the result, staging huge protests and launching an energetic digital campaign that hopes to carry Lula to a fourth, nonconsecutive term.

"Lula is essential for Brazil, for us to keep moving forward on social issues," said 29-year-old accountant Victor Gomes, who grew up in a favela and attributes his successes to the leftist leader's social policies.

The president "represents the voice of the most humble Brazilian people... who for a long time were not heard," he said.

A Datafolha institute poll this week showed the candidates tied with 50 per cent of voting intentions each.

- BIKERS FOR BOLSONARO -

Bolsonaro rallied a large crowd including hundreds of bikers sporting the canary-yellow national football jersey in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the key bellwether state of Minas Gerais.

Business owner Ebert Dorigo accused Lula's PT of seeking to make people dependent on state welfare.

"Our country is divided today because, due to welfare-based policies, some people... haven't grasped that improvement and achievement come only through hard work," he told AFP.

"Enough is enough. We've had 16 years of this administration, and it's clear it didn't work. It's time for a change," said Joao Paulo, 37, referring roughly to the total period the PT has governed Brazil.

Bolsonaro later headed to Rio to visit the house his father recovered in after being stabbed during his ultimately successful 2018 presidential campaign.

The senator took selfies with a group of children from the crowd that greeted him with US and Israeli flags as well as signs reading "Lula out."

- 'THE LESSER EVIL' -

In their final debate on Friday night, the rivals struck a calmer tone than in their first showdown, which descended into insults and was empty of policy proposals.

Lula attacked the senator's lack of experience while Bolsonaro accused the president of leaving behind a "broken country."

"He doesn't know what hunger is," Brazil's first working-class president said of Bolsonaro, who asked the incumbent: "Why are things so expensive?"

Bolsonaro has styled himself as a moderate version of his firebrand father, who is serving 27 years for attempting a coup after his electoral loss to Lula in 2022.

He has promised to resolve Brazil's crime woes, create 500,000 more spots in prisons and slash government spending.

Both sides leaned into fearmongering during the acrimonious campaign, producing a sense of alienation among many voters.

"If there were any other candidate, that would be a better option. But we're stuck choosing between the worst, the horrible, and the lesser evil," said event organiser Gabriela Ribeiro Viana, 29.--AFP