Brazil's Flavio Bolsonaro turns scandal into poll gains

SAO PAULO:

Despite being caught up in an explosive financial scandal that has dominated Brazil's election campaign, candidate Flavio Bolsonaro has gained ground with less than two weeks to go before the vote.

After months trailing leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the polls, the 45-year-old senator is nipping at his heels in what is shaping up to be a knife-edge race.

A survey published Monday by the Quaest pollster showed the right-wing candidate would secure 42 percent of voter support in a hypothetical October 25 runoff vote, compared to 41 percent for Lula.

This gap falls within the poll's margin of error.

Flavio Bolsonaro, son of jailed far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, is under investigation for suspected corruption and money laundering over the financing of a film about his father.

The biopic was bankrolled by Daniel Vorcaro, a jailed banker who is accused of orchestrating one of Brazil's largest financial fraud cases.

However, it is another one of Vorcaro's many allegedly dubious relationships revealed by investigations that has eclipsed the accusations against Bolsonaro and hurt Lula's campaign.

A police report showed numerous conversations in which Vorcaro sought help in the fraud probe against him from a phone number which investigators linked to powerful Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.