Brazil’s hard-right leader Jair Bolsonaro and his left-wing challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are almost neck-and-neck in polls as the country prepares to vote in today’s presidential election following a bitter campaign.
Surveys by pollsters Datafolha and Quaest both put Lula on 52 per cent of the votes against 48 per cent for Mr Bolsonaro, down from a 6 point lead three days ago.
Most polls still suggest Lula is the slight favourite to come back for a third term, capping a remarkable political rebound after his jailing on graft convictions that were overturned. But Mr Bolsonaro outperformed opinion polls in the first-round vote on 2 October and many analysts say the election could go either way.
Polls will open at 8am local time and close at 5pm. More than 120 million Brazilians are expected to cast ballots, but because the vote is conducted electronically, the final result is usually available within hours after voting stations close in late afternoon.
