Brazilians voted Sunday in a turbulent presidential election that has included huge street protests, an assassination attempt on one candidate and the efforts of a former candidate to wage a political campaign from jail.
The election has splintered a country wracked by anxiety about rising violence, a shaky economy and corruption that has extended to the highest levels of politics.
Polls showed shown far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro rapidly gaining support in recent weeks, though falling short of the 50 percent he would need to win outright and avoid a runoff Oct. 28 with the second-place candidate.
His closest competitor is Fernando Haddad, a former mayor of Sao Paulo who belongs to the leftist Workers Party that ruled Brazil until 2016. Eleven other candidates trailed significantly in the polls.
Bolsonaro, a former army captain who was in Congress for more than 20 years, has drawn comparisons to President Donald Trump for his blunt style and populist rhetoric.
He has said he supports the use of torture and has promised to loosen gun laws and give more power to police and soldiers.
"We can't go on worrying that we'll be robbed every time we walk down the street," said Victor Tavares Oliva Ghiu, an unemployed 20-year-old who voted for Bolsonaro in the capital, Sao Paulo. "Bolsonaro is going to make sure people can be armed so they can protect themselves."
His mother, Maria Aracy Tavares Oliva, also voted for Bolsonaro. This year, she was carjacked while driving with her mother on a major S�o Paulo street.
"It was terrifying," said Oliva, a 55-year-old veterinarian. "I have hope that with Bolsonaro, things will change."
Bolsonaro's opponents say he would return Brazil to the days of military dictatorship, and recent attack ads compared him to Adolf Hitler. His history of disparaging remarks about women, black people and members of the LGBTQ community has made him the target of protests across the country, with hundreds of thousands of people marching in the streets against him last week.
Monica Oliveira, a 29-year-old who works in the arts, took part in that protest. She voted for Haddad on Sunday.
"Bolsonaro is the worst thing that could happen to this country," she said outside a polling station in Sao Bernardo do Campo, a city on the outskirts of the capital. "He represents the end of our rights and a return to more violence. If we vote somebody like that in, it's like giving him permission to walk all over us. It's like we're saying violence is OK."
Support for Bolsonaro grew after he was stabbed in the stomach at a campaign rally Sept. 6. The candidate was rushed to a hospital for emergency surgery, and continued to campaign from his hospital bed via videos posted on social media. Police say the motive of the stabbing is unclear.
Just a few months ago, the Workers' Party appeared set to reclaim the presidency, which it held from 2003 to 2016, when Dilma Rousseff was impeached on charges of manipulating the federal budget in an attempt to conceal the country's financial problems.
Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who left office in 2010 with 90 percent approval ratings, ran again this year, despite the fact that he is serving a 12-year prison sentence for his role in the so-called Car Wash corruption scheme involving Brazil's state-run oil company. Polls in late August showed Lula as the clear front-runner, with 39 percent of the vote.
Lula was declared ineligible to run because of a law that bars people convicted of crimes from running for election for eight years after they are released, and he abandoned his campaign in September.
The Workers' Party replaced him with Haddad. Relatively unknown outside Sao Paulo, Haddad has not inspired the same level of enthusiasm as Bolsonaro. The last polls before Sunday's vote had him at 25 percent, compared with Bolsonaro's 40 percent.
Brian Winter, vice president for policy at the Council of the Americas think tank, said Bolsonaro is capitalizing on a global shift toward right-leaning populist leaders. He compared Bolsonaro's security proposals with those of Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, who is accused of ordering thousands of extrajudicial killings in his war on drugs.
"Far from being a deal breaker, all of his rhetoric about turning loose police on criminals is exactly what voters want to hear," Winter said of Bolsonaro.
Voters are worried about safety and the fallout from Brazil's recent economic recession, including a 12 percent unemployment rate.
In Bolsonaro, "they see somebody who is strong enough to change the status quo," Winter said.
Many voters have lost faith in Brazil's institutions altogether, a feeling of disillusionment fueled by the Car Wash scandal, in which executives at the state oil company were found to have accepted bribes from construction companies in exchange for large contracts. The Workers' Party was one of several parties found to have used some of that money funds to pay off politicians.
A 2017 survey by the Pew Research Center found that only 8 percent of Brazilians think representative democracy is a "very good" form of government, the lowest of 38 countries surveyed. The survey also found that nearly 39 percent of respondents think military rule would be good for Brazil.
Alessandro Vieira Sampaio, a 37-year-old sushi chef in Sao Paulo, cast a blank ballot Sunday to protest what he called a broken system.
"All politicians lie," he said. "They all try to fool us. Nothing is going to change."
