(Adnkronos) – President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his main challenger, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, skipped the last televised debate scheduled before the presidential elections on Sunday, October 4, depriving the approximately 158 million Brazilian voters of the last direct confrontation between the two favorites. The debate, organized for Tv Globo and scheduled for the Italian night between Thursday and Friday, was finally canceled by the broadcaster, which cited a situation of “legal uncertainty” determined by two different decisions of the Brazilian justice system. It is the first time in twenty years that the main candidates for the presidency of Brazil reach the first round without ever having publicly confronted each other in a debate. Lula had already announced on Wednesday that he would not participate, while Bolsonaro withdrew only a few hours before the start of the broadcast.
“You can’t bring someone who has 49% in the polls to discuss with someone who has 1%,” Lula explained, reiterating the motivation already used to justify his absence from other electoral confrontations. Bolsonaro, on the other hand, attributed the decision to “censorship imposed by electoral justice,” after a court had prevented Globo from leaving an empty chair on stage for Lula, which would have allowed other candidates to ask questions to the absent president. “I challenged you to a debate, Lula, more than twice. You ran away. We want to confront you, to throw the truth in your face,” Bolsonaro stated in a social media live broadcast. Another ruling had also ordered the broadcaster to invite Renan Santos, a candidate critical of the president.
Brazil returns to the polls on Sunday to choose the president who will lead Latin America’s largest economy for the next four years. There are 13 candidates in the running, but all polls point in the same direction: a duel between Lula, 80, a candidate for a fourth term, and 45-year-old Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair. To be elected in the first round, a candidate must obtain more than half of the valid votes; otherwise, the top two will face each other in a runoff on October 25. According to analysts, both favorites have so far avoided direct confrontations to reduce risks in a very close competition, but they could find themselves face to face in debates scheduled in the three weeks between the first and second rounds, if – as is probable – no one manages to exceed the 50% threshold on Sunday.
