Lula Calls for Fighting Abstention to Avoid a 'Trump Effect'

During a meeting in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, the Workers' Pary presidential candidate Lula da Silva asked Brazilians to go to the polls on Oct. 2 to avoid "the Trump effect", which allowed Republicans to win the 2016 election in the United States.

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Lula recalled that Robert de Niro referred in derogatory terms to Donald Trump. In his reply to the harsh criticism, however, the Republican candidate reminded the artist that he would not have won if eight million Democratic voters had actually gone to the polls. But they didn't.

For this reason, the Brazilian left-wing candidate asked all citizens, even those who would not vote for him and for the Workers' Party candidates, to attend the polling stations.

"It's important that people show up to vote, even for them to subsequently have the right to insult and demand," Lula told Brazilians with seven days to go before the presidential election.

Lula also his followers to look for people who are undecided or thinking of abstaining and to ask them to attend to exercise their civil rights. The greater the citizen mobilization, the greater the possibility that the presidential elections will be defined in a single round.

This request, however, has also been made by other Brazilian democratic politicians and intellectuals who consider that Bolsonaro will not be able to easily ignore the results of the elections or threaten a coup d'etat if the citizen participation is high.

On Sunday, the Brazilian outlet G1 published data from voting intention polls conducted in 26 states and the Federal District between Sept. 12 and Sept. 25.

According to this information, Lula continues to lead voting intentions at the national level as well as in the states of Alagoas, Amapa, Amazonas, Bahia, Ceara, Maranhao, Minas Gerais, Para, Paraiba, Pernambuco, Piaui, Rio Grande do Norte, Sao Paulo, and Sergipe.

On the other hand, Bolsonaro has greater voting intentions in the states of Acre, Goias, Mato Grosso, Parana, Rondonia, Roraima, and Santa Catarina.

The G1 data suggest that a possible "technical tie" might occur in the Federal District and in the states of Espiritu Santo, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, and Tocantins. In all these territories, however, Lula keeps an advantage over Bolsonaro.