By Brian Ellsworth and Fernando Cardoso

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro heads into Sunday’s election with sturdy assist amongst evangelical Christians, a key demographic his rival, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, had courted in a race tight presidential election.

Polls present Bolsonaro growing his share of the evangelical vote as his marketing campaign steps up its non secular appeals, whereas attacking Lula’s left-wing Employees’ Get together for its protection of homosexual rights and the rights of those that follow African-American non secular traditions. brazilian.

Lula had tried to make inroads amongst evangelicals by peppering his speeches with biblical references and denying accusations from Bolsonaro’s camp that he deliberate to limit non secular freedoms or assist abortion.

Nonetheless, 4 outstanding pollsters present assist for Bolsonaro above 60% amongst evangelicals, making them the strongest demographic assist for the far-right populist’s re-election.

Bolsonaro has lengthy targeted on controversial social points as a option to activate non secular conservatives, mentioned Flavio Conrado of Casa Galileia, a company that promotes dialogue round democracy and Christian values.

“Bolsonaro did this realizing that this conservative ethical agenda – abortion, gender position points, homosexuality – have been points that evangelicals are delicate to. And never simply evangelicals, Catholics too,” he mentioned. he declared.

Even earlier than the official begin of the marketing campaign, Bolsonaro was already focusing a lot of his official program on non secular occasions. In July and August, 40% of his public appearances exterior Brasilia have been at non secular marches, companies or conferences, in keeping with a Reuters evaluation of his actions.

Bolsonaro, was raised Catholic and baptized within the Jordan River by an evangelical pastor throughout a go to to Israel earlier than his election in 2018, as a part of a broader effort to spice up his enchantment with the important thing non secular bloc.

His spouse Michelle Bolsonaro, an evangelical Christian, additionally performed a outstanding position on this 12 months’s marketing campaign, delivering fire-and-brimstone inflected stump speeches to delighted audiences.

Evangelicals made up about 22% of Brazil’s inhabitants on the 2010 census, a soar of seven proportion factors from the earlier decade. The subsequent census, which has been delayed as a result of pandemic, ought to present an extra enhance of this order.

Lula’s assist amongst evangelical voters lags about 30%, in keeping with latest opinion polls by polling corporations IPEC, Datafolha, AtlasIntel and Quaest.

Assist amongst evangelicals helped Bolsonaro cut back Lula’s conventional power amongst low-income voters, who benefited from the enlargement of social welfare applications throughout Lula’s presidency from 2003 to 2010, serving to hundreds of thousands individuals out of poverty.