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Jair Bolsonaro: On October 30th there will be a runoff between Lula and the right-wing populist
Photo: Silvia Izquierdo/AP
In Brazil, the run-off election must decide who will take over the office of president in the future.
In the first round, the left-wing ex-head of state Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was just ahead.
Now the government of the ultra-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro has brought forward the payment of social benefits.
The family aid, for example, will be paid out a week earlier than planned in October, as the Brazilian news agency Agência Brasil reported on Monday (local time).
Accordingly, the payout begins on October 11th and ends on October 25th instead of October 31st.
With neither candidate gaining more than 50 percent of the vote in the presidential race, Lula and Bolsonaro will face off in a runoff election on October 30.
In July, Congress in Brasilia approved the declaration of a state of emergency, removing the constitutional ceiling on government spending.
This gave President Bolsonaro's government permission to spend the equivalent of around 7.5 billion euros by the end of the year - for example to increase social benefits.
In addition, truck and taxi drivers should be supported, taxes on ethanol reduced and cooking gas subsidized.
Election splits Brazil
Opposition MPs also voted in favor of the decision.
Their justification was that it was necessary to support the poorest part of the population in the country with more than 210 million inhabitants.
Lula ruled from the beginning of 2003 to the end of 2010 and lifted millions of people out of abject poverty with social programs.
The election has extremely divided the largest economy in Latin America.
Lula called Bolsonaro a "genocide" because of his hesitant corona policy, and Bolsonaro called his opponent a "thief" after his conviction for corruption.
If ex-president Lula (2003-2010) also wins in the second round, he would be Brazil's first democratic president to serve a third term.
In addition to the future president, MPs, senators and governors were also elected on Sunday.
asc/dpa
