Madar (International) - A poll released on Saturday, October 24, 2026, showed Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro about even on the eve of Sunday's presidential runoff, Al Jazeera English reported, citing Reuters.
The CNT/MDA poll gave Flavio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, 46.3% of the vote against 45% for Lula, compared with 46.8% to 45.9% a week earlier. MDA surveyed 2,032 people from October 21 to 23, with a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points. A Datafolha survey published on Thursday had the pair tied at 50% each.
Bolsonaro finished first in the first round on October 4 with 47% to Lula's 45%. In Friday's final debate, he accused the president of allowing organised crime to expand, driving families into debt and failing to tackle the cost of living, while Lula said of his rival: "He doesn't know what hunger is... He doesn't know Brazil."
Rio de Janeiro City Hall said about 1.1 million people attended a pro-Lula rally on Copacabana beach on Saturday, before the president went on to a rally on Paulista Avenue in Sao Paulo, while Bolsonaro supporters gathered in Belo Horizonte, capital of Minas Gerais state, according to The Guardian.
Nearly 159 million Brazilians are eligible to vote. Lula, 80, first elected in 2002, is seeking a fourth non-consecutive term, and no first-round loser has come back to win since Brazil's return to democracy in the 1980s. Jair Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election to Lula.
