Brazil votes in down-to-wire Bolsonaro-Lula showdown
From left are Brazilian President and reelection candidate for the Liberal Party Jair Bolsonaro and Brazilian former president and presidential candidate for the Workers' Party Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. AFP-Yonhap
Brazilians began voting Sunday in a white-knuckle presidential runoff election, choosing between wildly different visions of their future offered by far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and his leftist arch-rival, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Lula, a charismatic former president tainted by graft charges, narrowly won a first-round election and enters the finale the slight favorite with 52 percent of voter support, according to a final poll from the Datafolha institute on Saturday.
However, Bolsonaro, who scored 48 percent in the poll, performed better than expected last time around, and many pundits see the election as too close to call.
Waiting in line to vote in Brasilia, Nadia Faraj said she had been up since 4:30 am worrying about the nation's future.
“It's a watershed moment for the country,” the 61-year-old Bolsonaro supporter told AFP. (AFP)