Candidates vying to be Brazil's next president made last-ditch bids Saturday to woo undecided voters on the eve of a first-round election that polarizing far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro is favoured to win.
Even though campaigning in public ended Thursday, many of the 13 candidates continued to make their case via social networks in Latin America's largest democracy.
Mr Bolsonaro has been particularly adept at using the internet. Since being stabbed by a lone knifeman while campaigning a month ago he has been convalescing in hospital and at home, but remained very active on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
On Saturday, he used Instagram to say "it is necessary to use force to combat crime so that criminals understand that their action will not go unpunished."
The 63-year-old ultraconservative, an ex-paratrooper advocating tough law-and-order measures and looser gun laws, surged in the polls in recent days. He has 35 percent of voter support according to the Datafolha firm.
That puts him well ahead of his nearest rival, Fernando Haddad, who became the leftist Workers Party replacement candidate after its iconic figure, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was declared ineligible because he is in prison for corruption.
A woman with the words "Not him" written on her face, takes part in a protest against Jair Bolsonaro, the presidential front-runner. Source: AP
Mr Haddad is credited with 22 per cent support.
If those scores are borne out in Sunday's general election, Mr Bolsonaro and Mr Haddad will go on to a run-off ballot on October 28. That round is seen as too close to reliably call.
But analysts say Mr Bolsonaro's rise has been so swift there is an outside possibility he could even carry off the presidency on Sunday without going to a second round.
A political analysis consultancy, Eurasia Group, said it viewed a first-round outright victory as "unlikely," estimated its chance at 20 percent.
Strongly for and against
Mr Bolsonaro is seen as a "clean" candidate, unmarred by corruption scandals that have sullied so many other politicians despite him spending the past 27 years in congress. Though a Catholic, he has close ties to evangelical groups that form a powerful political lobby.
Yet he is reviled by around 40 percent of voters, according to surveys. Many object to his comments degrading women, making light of rape, expressing hostility to homosexuals and criticizing the poor.
His nostalgia for Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship has also chilled voters.
But he has solid support from better-educated Brazilians fed up with crime and corruption, and by business leaders and investors swayed by his promises to reduce Brazil spiralling debt through privatizations in the world's eight-biggest economy.
"Bolsonaro has better scores from voters with high revenues and good levels of education than from the poor. He also has wooed more men than women," noted political analyst Jairo Nicolau.
A demonstrator holds a toy gun and a Brazilian flag, during a race in support of Jair Bolsonaro. Source: AP
Around 50 per cent of Brazilian women say they would never vote for Mr Bolsonaro, surveys show.
Yearning for prosperity
Much of Brazil did very well economically under the 2003-2010 rule of former president Lula, and yearns for that heyday after suffering through a subsequent 2014-2016 recession that was Brazil's worst ever.
But many don't trust the Workers Party to bring back the good times. The sharp decline, which has resulted in 12 percent unemployment, happened under Lula's chosen successor Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached and booted from office in 2016 for fiddling public finances.
Mr Haddad, a former mayor of Sao Paulo, climbed into second place thanks to Lula's lingering popularity. He sold himself as "Lula's candidate" and promised to open the public purse strings to recover prosperity.
On Saturday, Mr Haddad was in Brazil's poverty-stricken northeast region in an effort to rustle up more votes.
"We are arriving at the big day. Don't decide your vote by rumours, lies on WhatsApp. Decide on the basis of the proposals, on who is by the side of Brazilian workers," he tweeted.
Lula himself tried Friday to give Mr Haddad a fillip by sending a letter from jail in which he said: "October 6 is my official birthday. I hope my gift on October 7 is a vote by the Brazilian people for Mr Haddad as president."
Lula really turns 73 on October 27, but his birth was registered a year after he was born in 1945 with October 6 given as his birthdate.
Sunday's election, as well as deciding among the presidential candidates, is to choose new federal and state legislatures.
