Star Metro - A saintly spat and debate snub: Brazil enters final polls stretch

Scandals, attacks and counter-attacks have dominated a bitter campaign battle between leftist Lula and right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, 45, who face off in a voting on Sunday, but they have not gone head-to-head in person.

Lula, 80, has refused to attend a televised debate Thursday with Bolsonaro and three other candidates, and will appear on a popular podcast at the same time.

The latest scandal to hit the campaign erupted after media reports that figures in the Catholic Church were concerned about the future status of Our Lady of Aparecida.

This collided with the unearthing of an abandoned 2007 bill, initially proposed by conservative lawmaker, to demote the patron saint.

Flavio Bolsonaro fiercely denied such plans as "fake news," but the issue struck a nerve in a country where the majority Catholic population, which reveres the saint, tends to back Lula.

A booming Evangelical population is a key electoral base for far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, and now his son.

On the campaign trail, Lula clutched a figure of Our Lady of Aparecida, Brazil's beloved Black Madonna, declaring that "messing" with her was "unacceptable."

In a decision late Wednesday, the electoral court upheld a Supreme Court order that "notoriously untrue" posts saying Flavio Bolsonaro intends to strip the patron saint of her role be removed.

Meanwhile, the police opened an investigation into the destruction of statues of saints in churches in Salvador and the defacement of a statue of Our Lady of Aparecida with an axe in a chapel in the state of Mato Grosso.

Brazil has the second-largest Christian population in the world, after the United States, according to the Pew Research Center.

- Debate vs podcast -

Lula's decision to skip the final debate has been portrayed by Brazilian commentators as a bid to shield him from attacks from Flavio Bolsonaro and three other candidates polling in the single digits -- none of whom come from leftist parties.

But critics warn the debate will give Lula's rivals a stage to criticize him in his absence.

Instead, Lula will appear on the Flow podcast -- which has 10 million followers on YouTube -- starting half an hour before the debate.

Lula is seeking a fourth non-consecutive term in office, with the country's 160 million voters deeply polarized.

The president has a slight lead over Bolsonaro in polls ahead of the first-round election on Sunday.

To win in the first round, a candidate needs more than 50 percent of valid votes.

Polls show Lula and Bolsonaro in a dead heat in a potential run-off on October 25.

S.Lapointe--SMC