Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva joined his supporters at a closing campaign rally on Copacabana Beach on Saturday, ahead of Sunday’s runoff.
Footage showed Lula atop a truck waving the Brazilian flag and touching the hands of supporters who surrounded the vehicle as the rally moved through the street.
In remarks before the start of the rally, Lula told his supporters and his team he was certain he'll win the runoff. "I am telling you, and you can write it down: tomorrow I will be elected President of the Republic once again," he added.
Lula and his opponent senator Flavio Bolsonaro remain about even heading to Sunday's election runoff, a CNT/MDA poll showed on Saturday.
The right-wing senator, the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, would receive 46.3 per cent of the vote compared with 45 per cent for the leftist Lula, according to the poll. Last week, a poll showed Bolsonaro leading Lula 46.8 per cent to 45.9 per cent.
Supporters of Bolsonaro gathered in Rio de Janeiro, cheering and waving Brazilian flags as the senator paraded through the city ahead of Brazil's election.
Bolsonaro rode in a parade vehicle through the streets of Rio, greeting supporters and singing the national anthem alongside elected federal deputy Nicolas Ferreira. Crowds lined the route, waving flags, sounding truck horns and watching from apartment balconies and building terraces.
"I am confident. I even think the vote difference will be more than 5 million, because he (Flávio Bolsonaro) has shown and demonstrated that he is capable," university professor Mauro Pacanowsk said. "He is young, 45 years old, in the prime of life, and has a very large movement behind him."Some supporters carried signs and Brazilian and US flags, while others posed for photographs beside cardboard cutouts of former President Jair Bolsonaro and Flávio Bolsonaro. One supporter wore a mask depicting US President Donald Trump and flashed the number 22, Bolsonaro's ballot number.
Property manager Glaucia Gray said she believed a Bolsonaro presidency would improve public security.
"Flavio is an educated person and a person who understands politics," she said. "And I am sure he will do the best for us, especially on security, because today in Rio de Janeiro we live in fear."