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Brasilia (AFP) – The two main candidates for the presidency of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, kept their participation in the first television debate on hold this Friday, with 48 hours remaining for this long-awaited campaign event.
The debate, organized by a group of Brazilian media, including the ‘Rede Bandeirantes’ radio station and the ‘Folha de S. Paulo’ newspaper, is the first on the campaign calendar with a view to the elections on October 2.
Bolsonaro said on Friday that “he must go” on Sunday, after having considered not participating, although he clarified that the decision has not been made.
“I must be [en el debate] on Sunday. I am deciding. At one point I thought I shouldn’t go, now I think I should. I’m going to be shot, they’re going to shoot me all the time (…) but I think my strategy is going to work,” the president said in an interview with the radio station ‘Jovem Pan’.
Shortly before, a Bolsonaro adviser had told the AFP news agency that the far-right leader had decided not to participate to avoid “wearing out” of becoming the “preferred target” of the candidates.
The leftist Lula, his main adversary and favorite in the polls, also keeps his participation in suspense. A source from his campaign said that the former president of Brazil (2003-2010) will confirm as soon as it is known “if Bolsonaro goes.”
Both candidates were interviewed this week, separately, in the most watched news in Brazil, considered an important moment in the campaign that began on August 16.
Lula leads the electoral race for October 2 with 47% of the intention to vote against 32% for Bolsonaro, according to a survey by the ‘Datafolha Institute’ published on August 18. Other polls indicate a smaller lead, with Lula also ahead.
The organizers invited, in addition to Lula and Bolsonaro, four other candidates, including former Finance Minister Ciro Gomes, from the center-left PDT, and Senator Simone Tebet, from the centrist MDB, third and fourth in the polls.
Although the event, scheduled for Sunday night, may lose its shine with the eventual absence of some of the best positioned, it will not be cancelled.
In case of absences, the space reserved for the candidates will be empty, according to the organizers.
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