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Brazil's Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro campaign in powerhouse state ahead of Sunday's presidential vote · Best of: Features

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  Brazil's Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro campaign in powerhouse state ahead of Sunday's
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  presidential vote. Written by Mauricio Savares and Eleanor Hughes. This article
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  is being read by an automated voice generated by Everlett. Sao Paulo,
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  the AP. Front runners in Brazil's presidential race campaign Saturday in the
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  powerhouse state of Sao Paulo, where a fifth of the nation's vote
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  is based, seeking to rally supporters and convince the undecided on the
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  eve of Sunday's election. President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, seeking his
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  fourth non consecutive term, held his traditional pre election Saturday parade in
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  the metropolis of Sao
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  Paulo's Opposition candidate Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jar
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  Bolsonaro, traveled to the countryside cities of Santa Barbara d'Oeste and Americana.
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  Sao Paulo is Brazil's heavyweight state with forty six million residents and
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  an annual gross domestic product of three point four trillion Brazilian rias,
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  six hundred fifty billion dollars art. Argentina has around the same. Some
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  thirty four million paulistas as those born in the state are known
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  are eligible to vote. Lula told his supporters near Paulista Avenue, Sao
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  Paulo's main artery, that this election represents an existential battle for the
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  nation's future. On one side we have democracy and sovereignty, on the
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  other barbarism and corruption, Lula said, echoing key themes of his campaign.
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  Last year, Brazil Supreme Court sentenced Jair Bolsonaro to twenty seven years
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  in prison for attempting a coup after his 2022 electoral defeat to
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  Lula. Observers say he would likely be released from prison if his
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  son wins the election. Lula's team has also repeatedly cast Flavio Bolsonaro
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  as a threat to Brazil's sovereignty, pointing to his proximity with U.S.
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  President Donald Trump. Last year the American leader imposed a fifty percent
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  tariff on Brazilian imports due to Jair Bolsonaro's trial, which Trump called
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  a witch hunt. Brazil is a conservative country. Thirty two year old
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  Daniela Fernandez, who works at a public school in Sao Paulo as
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  a secretary, said that at first she wanted another Workers Party politician
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  to run instead of Lula, but she changed her mind during the
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  campaign. I wanted some renovation, but Lula is the only one who
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  can appeal to everyone, even those who are not on the left,
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  said Fernandez, who was wearing several Lula badges on her white shirt.
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  The Bolsonaro's are still strong. Brazil is a conservative country. Only Lula
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  can win this one. Some one hundred and forty kilometers away, eighty
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  seven miles, from Lula in downtown Sao Paulo Flavio Bolsonaro was trailed
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  by a long line of supporters, kitted out in yellow and green
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  on motorbikes as he made his way on top of a sound
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  truck from Santa Barbara d'Oeste to Americana. I'm convinced that we can
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  win in the first round, said senators. Bolsonaro, who kissed a portrait
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  of his father as The crowd shouted, Mito, a Portuguese word for
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  legend, that Jair Bolsonaro supporters used to refer to him. So let's
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  get out of our houses to vote. Because Bolsonaro is going to
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  be president, Fla Bolsonaro said. Bolsonaro was accompanied by Sao Paulo State
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  Governor Tarsicio de Fretas, who was once floated as Bolsonaro Sr.'s political
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  heir, before Flavio Bolsonaro last December said his father had chosen him
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  to run in the upcoming election. Brazilians on Sunday will also choose
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  state and federal representatives as well as governors and some senators. In
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  Sao Paulo, Defrates is ranging for reelection. The main opposition candidate in
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  that race is Fernando Haddad, who Jair Bolsonaro beat in twenty eighteen
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  to become president, and who served as Lula's finance minister. Defretas has
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  a wide lead in the polls. Conflicting visions Twelve candidates are on
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  the presidential ballot, but only Lula and Bolsonaro are thought to have
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  a real chance of becoming Brazil's next head of state. If no
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  candidate receives more than fifty percent of the vote, the top two
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  will advance to a runoff on october twenty fifth. The two represent
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  opposite sides of the political spectrum, with conflicting visions on issues ranging
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  from how to tackle organized crime to the relationship Latin America's biggest
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  country should have with the Trump administration. Lula, who got His start
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  as a union worker, and has a missing pinky finger following an
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  accident in a factory when he was nineteen, has at times inspired
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  cult like devotion. He spent more than a year in prison on
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  corruption convictions that were later annulled before winning a third nonconsecutive term
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  in twenty twenty two. He has promised to ensure Brazilians are the
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  ones to benefit from the country's rare minerals and resources, protect the
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  Amazon rainforest and continue his flagship welfare program Bolsa Familia. Bolsonaro
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  has largely embraced his father's ultra conservative agenda, while at times trying
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  to strike a more moderate communication style to attract centrist voters. His
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  hardline security policies have been a pillar of his campaign, and polls
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  show these proposals are popular among Brazilians. The Senator has pledged to
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  fight the country's criminal groups by building El Salvador style mega prisons,
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  following the Trump administration's lead by designating transnational gangs terrorist organizations and
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  reducing the age to be tried as an adult to sixteen. Follow
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  the AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean.