Lula, Bolsonaro court new allies for competitive Brazil run-off

Brazilia, October 4

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his leftist challenger were hunting endorsements on Tuesday, party officials said, as they fine tuned their campaigns for a runoff in an election that has proven more competitive than expected.

Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won 48.4% of the votes on Sunday, just short of the majority needed for an outright win against the far-right Bolsonaro, whose surprisingly strong showing won him 43.2% of votes.

The highly polarized race, marked by threats from Bolsonaro that he might contest the results, will be decided on October 30.

Lula’s Workers Party has begun to reach out to the parties whose presidential candidates placed third and fourth on Sunday – Simon Tebet of the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement party and Ciro Gomes of the left-of-center Democratic Labor Party (PDT) – to win their endorsement. — Reuters