Bolsonaro, Lula Duel for Key Endorsements Ahead of Brazil Runoff

(Bloomberg) -- President Jair Bolsonaro and his leftist challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are rushing to secure endorsements from key political players from across Brazil as they gear up for the second stretch of the presidential campaign ahead of a Oct. 30 runoff.

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Two re-elected governors in the southeast region, home to more than 40% of Brazilian voters, endorsed the right-wing president on Tuesday, while Lula was backed by the party of the candidate who ended fourth in the race.

Rio de Janeiro Governor Claudio Castro pulled off a surprise win over the weekend, while Romeu Zema was re-elected governor for Minas Gerais, the state with the second-largest electorate, after Sao Paulo. They both got more votes in their respective states than Bolsonaro.

Lula, who came first on Sunday but short of the simple majority needed for an outright victory, received the backing of Ciro Gomes’s Democratic Labor Party. Gomes, former Ceara governor who tried to be a viable middle-road alternative during the election, saw most of his followers migrate to the front-runners a few days before the first round.

Read More: Brazil’s Lula Seeks New Approach in Tricky Runoff Campaign

The decision to back the former president was unanimous, Carlos Lupi, the president of the Democratic Labor Party, told journalists. A few hours later, Gomes himself announced he would follow his party’s guidelines, although he criticized his options and never mentioned Lula by name.

“Given the circumstances, it is the last way out,” he said in a recorded video posted on social media. “I regret that the democratic path has narrowed to such an extent that Brazilians are left with two options, which in my view are unsatisfactory.”

Lula also got the support from former central bank chief Arminio Fraga, newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo reported.

Fraga was among the thousands of economists, bankers and intellectuals who earlier this year signed manifestos in defense of democracy amid Bolsonaro’s attacks on the country’s voting system. Like many of the signatories, Fraga had declined to endorse Lula ahead of the first round.

(Recasts with endorsements received by Bolsonaro and Lula.)

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