Lula and Bolsonaro stage a last push for votes on eve of election

Sided by Fernando Haddad, Lula greets voters in São Paulo. Photo: Bruno Santos/Folhapress

On the last day of the 2022 campaign, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro met with voters in São Paulo in a last push to win over more votes before Brazilians hit the polls on Sunday.

Late in the morning, Lula and allies — namely Fernando Haddad, the former São Paulo mayor running for state governor — held a parade in the city center.

Mr. Bolsonaro, meanwhile, gathered hundreds of supporters in a motorcade in the north zone of São Paulo. He was accompanied by Tarcísio de Freitas, his former Infrastructure Minister — who is polling second behind Mr. Haddad in the São Paulo governor’s race.

Both candidates have very different goals for the last day of campaigning. Lula tries to lure enough undecided voters to get over 50 percent of votes and clinch the presidential election without the need for a runoff.

An Ipespe poll released on Saturday shows Lula with 46 percent of the vote, the same as last week. The survey puts Mr. Bolsonaro on 33 percent, down 2 points. Still, even with the president’s apparent loss of steam, Ipespe suggests the race is still likely to go to a runoff.

Interestingly, Father Kelmon, a self-proclaimed orthodox priest who is running for a far-right party and behaving as the president’s lackey, scored 1 percent of voting intentions — potentially taking votes away from Mr. Bolsonaro.

During the last presidential debate of the first round, Mr. Kelmon gained some name recognition by staging a heated argument with Lula and being on the receiving end of criticism from rivals.

Polls from traditional institutes Datafolha and Ipec will be released later today.