Lula and Bolsonaro trade barbs over corruption in Brazil election debate

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazil’s leading presidential candidates traded accusations of corruption in the last debate before Sunday’s election, with little discussion of proposals to govern the South American country.

Incumbent far-right President Jair Bolsonaro called his leftist rival, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the boss of a criminal gang that ran a “kleptocracy” during his two-term presidency 2003-2010.

Lula, who has a comfortable double-digit lead going into the first round of voting, called Bolsonaro a “shameless” liar whose government had covered up graft in the purchase of vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic that killed more than 680,000 Brazilians.

Centrist candidate Simone Tebet, of the Brazilian Democratic Movement party (MDB) scolded both men for exchanging personal attacks instead of focusing on proposals to solve high unemployment and rising hunger in the country.

The debate was run by TV Globo in Rio de Janeiro.

Major opinion polls show Lula with a lead of about 10-15 percentage points over Bolsonaro ahead of the first round of voting.

Pollster Datafolha said Lula has 50% of the valid votes, excluding blank and null ballots, and could win the election outright on Sunday, avoiding a second-round runoff.

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