00:00Brazil current president Luis Ignacio da Silva, the progressive candidate running for re-election
00:04and his rival far-right senator Flavio Bolsonaro are tied at 50% of the valid votes with just
00:10hours to go before the second round of voting. For more on the ground let's go live with our
00:14special envoy in Rio Belén de los Santos. Welcome Belén to From the South.
00:19Hello Luis here from Rio de Janeiro. What a privilege we have to be following this minute
00:25by minute election and just where I am right now it seems like a regular Saturday in Copacabana
00:31Rio but actually about two hours ago President Lula da Silva was here with a massive mobilization
00:38in the city the second largest city of the country and the city that the two candidates have chosen
00:45for their closing rallies let's recall that Luis Ignacio da Silva was here about two hours ago
00:52almost three then he left because he's going to Sao Paulo where he will have his final parade in the
01:00Paulista Avenue with his supporters one of the most central points of the country also the state in which
01:07he will be voting and here as well but outside the city in Barra de Tizuca Flavio Bolsonaro is also
01:15holding the closing rally he was in Minas Gerais earlier in the day and he's now closing in Rio de
01:21Janeiro
01:22let's recall that Rio is a stronghold for bolsonarism particularly that place Barra de Tizuca where
01:29he is holding the rally today so important events here just a little bit of what the act was we
01:36were
01:36reporting a few hours ago here but Lula da Silva was here and it is traditional parade he talked to
01:44the
01:44people many many were so eager to join him to listen to him he had a speech that focused on
01:52well many
01:53points but particularly he had a message for women for example he said that women are defining this
01:59election and he thanked the women for joining him you know that we've been going through weeks of
02:06mobilizations really and they have marked this last part of the campaign with this goal from the
02:13campaign of Lula da Silva to turn the election around we'll see what happens tomorrow but definitely
02:19one thing that we know for sure is that the mobilization has started a period of new knowledge and
02:29thought that particularly targeted for example the young people and the women as well the polls are also
02:35showing that those are key sectors for the election so Lula da Silva said that he sent their support
02:41also that he understood that the sensibility of women for example those who have lost their children
02:49at the hands of a police brutality and the militias that have links with bolsonarism particularly
02:56here in Rio de Janeiro that they would not vote for a candidate that hasn't those links and he again
03:03thanked them for their support so there's a little bit of what has happened here we are of course eagerly
03:10waiting for the day to start tomorrow final day the runoff and definitely we'll have a definition
03:17we have been saying that Lula had a clear campaign strategy following the first round where he fell short
03:26several percentage points behind bolsonarro and his plan was to go towards those people that did not vote in
03:32the first round the people that stayed at home and throughout this last week we have seen how the
03:37percentage difference between Lula and bolsonarro have shrunk to the point that today they are
03:42tying in terms of voting intentions so have you seen a success in terms of the mobilizations on the
03:47people on the ground of this new strategy of the Lula campaign ahead of the run of tomorrow
03:54i think that definitely and and i truly think that this is true no matter the result of tomorrow that
04:01the reaction
04:02following the first round really got to mobilize not only the sectors that were already supporting the campaign for Lula
04:11but other sectors that were a little bit just not so connected with the electoral process in general this
04:18happened in in two territories in the streets with massive mobilizations that started remember that just
04:26the day after the first round there were already students taking to the streets in Rio de Janeiro particularly
04:33and this that continued throughout the week and also a lot of organization and and a lot of different activities
04:41in
04:42social networks in the digital world something strategies that were managed to be organized that were in many cases
04:50spontaneous but have been connected with the official campaign in this goal that was to as you were saying to
04:58to reduce that gap between the candidates and ultimately to turn that around we were talking to several um
05:07several people who are following experts on politics on polling and they were saying well the trend is clear
05:14the trend is that the silver is gaining more and more support what is the big question for tomorrow
05:21so if that trend at what point of that trend we are going to have election day tomorrow so is
05:30it going to be
05:31enough to turn it around or are they going to fall just a little bit short that is the big
05:36question and of
05:37course we'll have an answer tomorrow thank you very much for
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