Brazil Gets the Election Finale It Didn’t Need
With the presidential runoff days away, grubby campaign tactics and a police shoot-out with a vocal supporter of incumbent Jair Bolsonaro raise the risk of a messy denouement.
On the last mile
Photographer: Andre Borges/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Brazil’s famous soap operas thrive on outlandish plots and the final leg of the country’s presidential race has not fallen short, a storyline liberally sprinkled with accusations of Faustian pacts and cannibalism. With the runoff vote approaching, prosaic reality may well be catching up with incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. His list of blunders is growing long and efforts to win over undecided voters appear to be faltering, not least after a former congressman and supporter threw stun grenades and shot at police to avoid being taken into custody.
Yet as every telenovela fan knows, nothing is final until the very last episode. Even the dead can come back, and frequently do. Challenger and former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is ahead in polls, but the numbers are tight, and factors like turnout could prove decisive — abstention, already high in the first round despite obligatory voting, tends to rise in the second.