Journalist: Brazilian election difficult to understand from US perspective

An American journalist and political commentator says the Brazilian election is difficult to understand from a US perspective.

New York-based radio host Don DeBar made the remarks on Friday while commenting on former US president Donald Trump’s advice to Brazilians ahead of the presidential runoff election on Sunday.

Far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and Brazil's former two-term president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will have a down-to-the-wire presidential runoff election, AFP reported.

Lula heads into the encounter in Rio de Janeiro leading the polarizing, hardline conservative Bolsonaro by six percentage points, 53 percent to 47 percent, according to a poll published Thursday by the Datafolha institute.

Lula, 77, led Bolsonaro, 67, by just four percentage points last week, according to Datafolha -- and most analysts give the veteran leftist a slight edge heading into Sunday's vote.

Trump on Friday ranted against Lula and hailed Bolsonaro. He called Bolsonaro a "great" leader and urged Brazilians to vote him in for another term.

"VOTE for President JAIR BOLSONARO -- HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!!!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Trump called Sunday's runoff election a "big day for Brazil."

Meanwhile, the former Republican president called Lula "a Radical Left Lunatic who will quickly destroy your Country."

In his post, Trump mocked Bolsonaro’s opponent by calling him “Lulu” instead of using his name “Lula”.

“What US politicians say about Brazil's election is pretty much irrelevant, in the same way that most of what they say is irrelevant. What they do is what matters,” said DeBar.

“In the case of this Brazilian election, the elite that makes policy for the US has its own objectives,” he said.

“Under Bolsinaro, Brazil has gone back to allowing the kind of private pillaging that Washington has fed upon since President James Monroe declared that interference in the affairs of any independent nation in this hemisphere would be viewed by Washington as ‘the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States,’ reserving that right unto itself. But he has also not been swayed into sanctioning Russia or withdrawing from participation in BRICS, standing with India, South Africa and China on that point,” he said.

“Also, Sanders' view of Hugo Chavez (‘a dead communist dictator’) should be all that is needed to guestimate Biden's (or his teleprompter's) feelings towards Lula and his brand of relatively leftist politics and economics,” DeBar said.

“These things are true regardless of who gets elected, and regardless of which US politician voices support for whichever Brazilian candidate,” he concluded.

Trump calls on Brazilians to reelect 'great' Bolsonaro

Former US president Donald Trump has ranted against Brazil

Lula was the front-runner in the polls for months, with a 21-point lead over Bolsonaro in May, according to the Datafolha Institute.

However, Bolsonaro surprised in the first round on October 2, getting 43 percent of the vote, only five points behind Lula, a much smaller gap than polls had projected.

In the final phase of the campaign, Bolsonaro has reduced his attacks on electronic voting and turned on polling firms, which he accused of "lying" to favor his main rival.

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