RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 02 (AFP): Brazilians voted Sunday in a polarizing presidential election leftist front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hopes to win in a single round amid fears far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro will not accept a defeat.
Polls opened at 8:00 am (1100 GMT) for eight hours of balloting with an early trickle of voters dutifully decked out in the red colors of Lula's Workers' Party, or the green-and-yellow of Brazil's national flag that Bolsonaro has claimed as his own.
"I'm a Christian, I only vote for candidates who are for what's in the Bible, so I'm voting for Bolsonaro," housewife Aldeyze dos Santos, 40, told AFP in Brasilia, the capital.
In Rio de Janeiro, retired psychologist Katia Ferrari, 67, said: "I hate Bolsonaro."
"In Lula's time, things were much better, no matter if he stole... everyone steals," she said in an allusion to Lula's controversial graft conviction, later overturned.
The campaign has left the Latin American giant deeply divided, with former president Lula (2003-2010) leading ex-army captain Bolsonaro with 50 percent of valid votes to 36 percent, according to a final poll from the Datafolha institute released Saturday evening.
The figures put Lula within arm's reach of the score needed to win outright and avoid a runoff on October 30: half the valid votes, plus one.
Bolsonaro, known for his combative style, has repeatedly said "only God" an remove him from office, attacked supposed fraud in Brazil's electronic voting system, and vowed his re-election bid can have just three outcomes: "prison, death or victory."
Lula, the charismatic but tarnished ex-president seeking to stage a comeback at 76, has said he fears the incumbent will create "turmoil" if he loses -- a concern heard often in Brazil heading into election day.
