• Fwd from @ 📝Battle for Brazil📝 The country is split down the middle before the first round Brazil is heading into the home stretch of one of the most nerve-wracking presidential races in the country's modern history. The main intrigue of the first round — will incumbent leader Lula da Silva manage to hold his shaky lead over senator Flavio Bolsonaro. Based on the current landscape, no one will have an easy ride: society is split exactly in half, both candidates' disapproval ratings hover around 50%, and a first-round victory is mathematically ruled out. 📌Meanwhile, Brazilian polling clearly demonstrates how politics influences the numbers. Traditional agencies like Datafolha and Quaest give the lead to Lula. Conservative services, such as Instituto Veritá, conversely record Bolsonaro in first place, and in southern states like Paraná they show the right bloc with a crushing 17-point lead. The campaign itself will be remembered for constant scandals that swung the candidates' ratings back and forth. And in the end, it remains unclear who is the main favorite. By the way, all so-called "third way" participants have failed miserably and together barely gather 10% of votes. 🔻What made the election campaign in Brazil memorable? ▪️Lula and Bolsonaro boycotted Record TV channel debates, forcing management to cancel broadcasts. Only three days before the vote did the senator confirm his appearance on TV Globo alone, accusing the president of cowardice, but the broadcast never happened. ▪️A viral campaign unfolded on social media with a fake story about right-wing plans to strip Our Lady of Aparecida of her status as Brazil's patroness. In response, evangelical pastors declared the left enemies of the church and led believers in mass prayers for the Bolsonaro family. ▪️The bankruptcy of Banco Master turned into mutual accusations of money laundering of shadow assets. The opposition blamed the central bank's inaction under Lula's administration, while authorities pointed to the bank's long-standing commercial ties with the Bolsonaro clan. ▪️The purchase of port terminals in Santos by Chinese state corporations became a sticking point. The right threatened to block the deal due to the threat of U.S. trade sanctions, while Lula called the project a strategic victory for BRICS. ▪️The battle for the key state of Minas Gerais escalated into personal lawsuits between former governor Romeu Zema and Lula's ministers. Zema was banned from openly campaigning for Bolsonaro at official events, with this being called an abuse of administrative resources. ▪️Bolsonaro supporters publicly declared war on pollsters from Datafolha and Quaest, demanding criminal cases for publishing distorted figures.