Forget the polls: Bolsonaro surge forces Lula into Brazil run-off

It's a whole new race. Yes, the faces are familiar but since Lula's heyday, when this emerging giant roared and commodity exports boomed, Brazil has been battered by corruption, Covid and culture wars amplified by social media. Bolsonaro is taking a leaf out of the Trump playbook by methodically laying the groundwork for confrontation with unsubstantiated allegations of fraud. Could Brazil experience its own January 6 moment?

How will the Americas' second-largest democracy handle the result, whoever wins? And what's next for a nation and a continent bitterly divided over the economy, minority rights, religion, the role of the military and the future of the Amazon rainforest?

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