Lula enters the home stretch leading Bolsonaro 50 percent to 36 percent, according to the latest poll from the Datafolha institute, released Thursday. Former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is the charismatic but tarnished ex-metalworker who led Brazil through an economic boom from 2003 to 2010. "What's at stake is democracy versus fascism," the gravelly voiced 76-year-old told a cheering crowd decked out in the red of his Workers' Party (PT) at a rally last month. "The stakes are huge... Democracy is on the ballot," said political analyst Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank, calling Bolsonaro "the most anti-democratic president" since the military regime. That, combined with die-hard support for Bolsonaro among some sectors of the military and police, is making observers nervous in Brazil and beyond.

Source: The Star September 30, 2022 10:31 UTC