"On the 28th,we'll go to the beach,"he quipped.
Bolsonaro managed a first-place finish with more than 10 percentage points ahead of his closest rival,putting him in position to possibly pull off a victory later this month.
"Bolsonaro is a strange phenomenon,"said Lucas de Aragao,director of Arko Advice,a political risk company in Brasilia."It's very hard to understand his movement,the why,the how. It doesn't have any precedent in Brazil. Even some Lula voters are turning to him. It's happened because Brazil loves this idea of a saviour,of a hero. And Bolsonaro now represents this image of a saviour as much as Lula does."
Just a few years ago,Brazil saw a surge of progressive policies under Lula,who,while president from 2003 to 2011,pushed through generous welfare programs and labour rights. He oversaw a commodities boom that lifted millions out of poverty and left office with a dizzying approval rating of 87 per cent.
He was unable to transfer that popularity to his anointed successor - Dilma Rousseff,a former guerrilla fighter who was impeached and removed from office in 2016 for failing to follow arcane budget laws.
Lula vowed to win back the presidency this year and shot to the top of the polls. But he became engulfed in a sweeping corruption probe involving political bribes. In April,he began serving a 12-year prison sentence and was later barred from running.
From his jail cell,Lula picked a stand-in:Haddad,a Lebanese Brazilian economist and one-term mayor of Sao Paulo. Shy and pragmatic,Haddad's personality is a shadow of the larger-than-life Lula. Lula's mere blessing has given Haddad an estimated quarter of the vote - no small achievement for a relative unknown.
"Hope trumps fear,"Lula tweeted on Saturday.
Haddad has met with investors,but many still worry he would not pass the tough reforms seen as necessary to avoiding another economic crisis here. Instead,they have swiftly backed Bolsonaro and his liberal economic guru, the University of Chicago-educated Paulo Guedes.
Despite a long stretch of rule by leftists and the enactment of policies including same-sex marriage,Brazil remains a socially conservative and religious nation. Bolsonaro has earned key support among evangelical voters,as well as business elites,members of the military and a disenchanted upper middle class.
Many of Bolsonaro's core backers are also huge fans of Trump - a leader with whom Bolsonaro shares striking parallels. Bolsonaro is a tough talker accused by critics of denigrating women and minorities and whose strongest followers include bands of angry white men. He champions"traditional value"but has been married three times. He directly connects with his legions of followers via social media.
In August,Bolsonaro's son - Eduardo Bolsonaro,a 34-year-old who operates as a political surrogate much in the way that Trump's elder children do - tweeted a photograph of himself in New York with former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon. (Incidently,Eduardo received the most number of votes for a federal MP,being elected on Sunday with a record 1.8 million votes. His brother Flavio was elected senator in Rio de Janeiro,according toEstadao.)
"It was a pleasure to meet STEVE BANNON,strategist in Donald Trump's presidential campaign,"Bolsonaro's son tweeted in English."We had a great conversation and we share the same worldview. He said be[sic] an enthusiast of Bolsonaro's campaign and we are certainly in touch to join forces,especially against cultural marxism."
He has vowed to crack down on the violent street gangs that control Brazil's drug trade and loosen gun laws so that civilians can arm themselves amid a record crime wave.
Yet Bolsonaro has been vague on the specific of his policies,largely implying them in testosterone-charged speeches. But he has vowed to crack down on the violent street gangs that control Brazil's drug trade and loosen gun laws so that civilians can arm themselves amid a record crime wave. He backs the free market but has signalled out Chinese investment - saying he will work with Beijing but that"we will not hand our territory over to anybody."
He has pledged to stop attempts to loosen strict abortion laws and has alarmed environmentalists by saying he would cease to protect indigenous lands. He potentially wants to see large-scale development in the Amazon jungle.
The race has been rife with high drama. In September, Bolsonaro was stabbed in the abdomen while campaigning. A 40-year-old man allegedly snaked his way through the crowd at a rally and plunged a knife into Bolsonaro,who was on the shoulders of supporters. Bolsonaro underwent multiple surgeries and was only released from hospital one week before the polls opened.
He once said a gay son was the product of not enough "beatings".
Bolsonaro's far-right backers have cheered on his infamous political incorrectness for years. He once said a gay son was the product of not enough"beatings"and told a female rival she was not worth raping because she was too"ugly". Last year,he said some descendants of slaves were fat and lazy,and he has lavished praise on the former military dictatorship.
"He's anti-woman,he's anti-black,he's anti-gay,"said Juliana Prado,39,a Sao Paulo resident who works in finance and voted for Haddad. She showed up to the polling booth with a shirt reading #elenao - #nothim,an anti-Bolsonaro hashtag that has spread among women in Brazil and well beyond.
"He's against everything,"she said.
Washington Post,Fairfax Media