Lula, Bolsonaro trade scandal fire in final scramble for votes

A campaign dominated by scandals and insults has done little to ease the deep political polarization in Latin America's biggest economy, one of the last major leftist bastions in the region.The tight race pits Lula, 80, against the son of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, a close ally of Donald Trump who has backed a wave of victorious right-wing candidates in Latin America.Trump said Thursday he was watching Brazil's election "very closely."Opinion polls predict the vote will go to a runoff on October 25, with Lula and Flavio in a dead heat."The race is tied but not at a standstill: the final week will determine where the voters who can still be swayed will go," Felipe Nunes, director of the Quaest polling institute, told AFP.Many of the nation's 160 million registered voters are disenchanted with their options and were deprived of a debate between the leading candidates when both declined to attend a televised program on Thursday evening.Marcelo Vilanova, 32, a fish market manager in the southeastern city of Juiz de Fora, said he was voting for Lula as the "lesser of two evils.""He did good things for me, for my family," he said, referring to Lula's social welfare progra...