“I tried to vote in the cell and I could not, and now I am voting with the possibility of becoming president again so that the country returns to normal”said the 76-year-old former leftist president in a brief speech after casting his vote.
Favored to win the elections without the need for a ballot, according to the latest poll, the leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) said that he and his vice candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, should “take care of this country as if it were a son, a mother, a brother.
Lula said that this election was “the most important” of his life after having been a candidate in 1989, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006 and after having spent 580 days in prison and disqualified from being a candidate in 2018, elections for which he was the favorite. and Bolsonaro won.
After 19 months in prison, the prison sentence for corruption was annulled by the Supreme Court on the grounds that the judge who issued it, Sérgio Moro, acted in a biased manner and in collusion with the prosecutors.
“By winning the elections we are going to make this country happy again, the people want to live in peace”Lula said.
The former president added that this election is key to “never again allow” Brazil to have a president like Bolsonaro.
Lula again deplored Bolsonaro’s much-criticized handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Never again can so many people be allowed to die due to lack of responsibility on the part of their ruler,” he said.
Lula was with his wife, Janja Da Silva, and the candidate for governor of São Paulo, Fernando Haddad, who for the first time can give the PT victory in the most developed and populated state in the country, with 46 million inhabitants.
Some 150 local and foreign journalists accompanied Lula’s statement in Sao Bernardo, the Greater Sao Paulo municipality where he became a metallurgical union leader against the military dictatorship in the late 1970s and built his political history until he was elected the first workers president of history, a position he held between 2003 and 2010.
Lula promised that he will go to Paulista Avenue tonight to celebrate his victory and did not rule out that it could happen without the need for a ballot on October 30, based on the advantage that the polls give him.
The former president will continue the vote count in a hotel in the center of São Paulo, where the PT set up the electoral command this weekend. He returned with half plus one of the votes. Another poll, by Ipec for TV Globo, indicates that Lula would receive 51% against 36% for Bolsonaro.
Election in a climate of tension
Brazilians voted today in the most crucial general elections of the last 30 years, with former left-wing president Luis Inácio Lula da Silva as the favorite to unseat his rival, far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.
The tables opened promptly at 8 a.m. and should close at 5 p.m., when the Electoral Justice will begin the count, which is expected to show a consolidated trend about two hours later.
According to polls, Lula, 76, could win in the first round, but Bolsonaro assures that he will be re-elected by a wide margin.
More than 156 million Brazilians were qualified to participate in the elections, in which the president, the governors of the 27 states, 21 senators, 513 federal deputies and more than 1,000 regional legislators will be elected. For the election, 577,000 electronic ballot boxes were available.
The elections are being held amid a climate of tension caused by unprecedented political violence during the campaign and by threats from Bolsonaro, 67, not to recognize the results.
Three voters of Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT) were killed during the campaign by Bolsonaro activists in the states of Paraná, Mato Grosso and Ceará, according to the police.
Bolsonaro insisted last night that he should be re-elected with at least 60% of the votes, despite the fact that the most recent polls once again showed Lula not only at the top, like the entire campaign, but with 50% of the votes plus one necessary to avoid the ballot.
Source: Ambito
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