Brazil’s Flavio Bolsonaro bows out of final pre-election debate

Brazilian presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro on Thursday dropped out of the final televised debate ahead of a tense first round of voting, accusing the electoral court of “censorship.”

The right-wing senator, the son of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, announced his withdrawal just two hours before Brazil’s largest television station TV Globo was set to air the programme.

Leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who holds a slight poll lead ahead of Sunday’s vote, had already refused to attend, opting to appear on a popular podcast instead.

“I have just decided not to go to Globo’s debate due to the censorship imposed on the event by the TSE (the Superior Electoral Court),” Bolsonaro wrote on X.

The court ruled earlier in the evening that TV Globo could not leave an empty chair on the set to represent Lula’s absence, according to the decision seen by AFP.

This ruling also prohibits participants from using their speaking time to address the empty chair to highlight the president’s no-show.

Polls project a dead heat between the two ideologically opposed candidates in a potential runoff on Oct 25.

A Datafolha institute poll published Thursday evening gives Lula 48% of voting intentions compared with 45% for Bolsonaro in the possible second round.