Lula da Silva is getting closer to win the presidential elections in Brazil

After the Brazilian presidential candidate Simone Tabet, who ranked third in the first round results, announced on Wednesday her support for former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the second round of his confrontation with far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, road seems to be paved for da Silva to win the elections.

The Brazilian senator of Lebanese descent, Simone Tabet, won 4.2% of the vote Sunday, as da Silva got 48.4% and Bolsonaro 43.2% seek to attract the five million voters who chose her before the October 30 run-off.

At a press conference in Sao Paulo, Tabet, an anti-abortion Catholic whose support is a gateway to conservatives and women, attacked both Lula da Silva and Bolsonaro.

The center-right senator said there was no doubt about which was worse, and that “the fires of hatred and conflict” have consumed Brazil in the past four years.

She criticized Bolsonaro for his “denial” of Covid, his pro-gun policies and the 30 million starving Brazilians.

And she continued, “I stick to my criticism of Luis Inacio Lula da Silva… but I’ll give him my vote, because I recognize his commitment to democracy and the constitution, which I haven’t seen before the current president”.

This support came after members of her party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement, were divided between a supporter of Bolsonaro and a supporter of Lula, and she left the choice to them.

Lula da Silva also won the endorsement of former center-right president Fernando Henrique Cardozo.

Cardoso, who defeated Lula twice in presidential elections in 1994 and 1998, wrote on Twitter that he would vote for Lula’s “history of struggle for democracy”.

Cardoso attached his tweet with two pictures of him with Lola, one in black and white dating back to 1980 and a recent one.

“Thank you for your vote and trust,” Lula replied.

Lula da Silva also won, on Tuesday, the support of his rival from the center-left Ciro Gomez, who finished fourth by 3% on Sunday.

Bolsonaro, whose far-right movement has made major gains in Congress, won the endorsements of the governors of Brazil’s three largest states, Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, as well as Sergio Moro, an influential former judge known for his fight against corruption.

Bolsonaro added to the list on Wednesday the support of the governors of the states of Brasilia, Parana and Goiás.