Bolsonaro, Lula Enter Presidential Campaign, Begin To Court Voters in Brazil's Most Polarized Election

Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and front-running challenge Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have formally launched their presidential campaigns on Tuesday for the country's most polarized elections in October.

The presidential race pits a nationalist-populist with an agenda supported by Christian conservatives against a former union leader and two-term president of the country from 2003 to 2010 who was later jailed for corruption until his convictions were annulled.

Brazil's Polarized Elections

In a statement, Bolsonaro, who is a former army captain, said that Brazil does not want corruption anymore. He made his remarks on Tuesday afternoon in Juiz de Fora, where he was stabbed during the 2018 campaign that carried him to power on a wave of anti-Lula sentiment.

Bolsonaro's supporters interrupted the speech by chanting "Lula thief." On the other hand, the 76-year-old Lula kicked off his campaign with a stop at the gates of the Volkswagen car factory in industrial Sao Bernardo dos Campos outside Sao Paulo.

There, he became a labor leader in the 1970s advocating for better pay despite suppression under the military dictatorship of the time. In a video posted on social media on Tuesday, Lula said that hunger had returned to Brazil under his presidential rival's term and noted that inflation was hitting families who could not survive on minimum wages, as per Reuters.

Lula said that there was a lot that needed to be done to rebuild the country as he launched his bid to return to the office. He stated, "I want to be president to change people's lives again, because the way it is, no one can take it anymore."

Bolsonaro's rival has a double digit-lead in most opinion polls for the Oct. 2 vote and the advantage increases in simulations of an expected second-round runoff on Oct. 30. In a survey released on Monday by researcher IPEC, formerly known as IBOPE, Lula had 44% of voters against Bolsonaro's 32%.

According to Aljazeera, Bolsonaro also told a crowd that it was impossible for him not to be moved when he returned to the city. He noted that the memory of the incident he encountered was a "rebirth," thanking God for sparing his life.

God-Fearing Politicians

On the other hand, Lula criticized Bolsonaro's administration and its failings during the COVID-19 pandemic, which a Senate investigation found contributed to the world's second-highest death toll. He added that if anyone was "possessed by the devil," it was Bolsonaro.

There have been fears of political violence should the results be contested are rising as Bolsonaro, without evidence, has claimed for several months that the nation's electronic voting system is vulnerable to fraud, an allegation that legal experts have rejected.

Lula's remarks of devil possession appeared partly an attempt to counter Bolsonaro's efforts to demonize the veteran leftist and convince millions of Brazilians that Lula's return to power would threaten their faith.

The far-right politician has called the election a battle between God-fearing "good" and leftist "evil" politicians. He warned voters against supporting those who "persecute and call for the closure of churches," The Guardian reported.