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Bloomberg
Way behind in the opinion polls and struggling to shore up second-round support from other political parties, Fernando Haddad’s presidential campaign has reached crunch point.
His Workers’ Party, or PT, had hoped that support for the candidate would start flooding in shortly after the results came out on Sunday night. But their expectation of a broad “democratic front” has not materialized. The backing has arrived in dribs and drabs, with the majority of parties opting to stay neutral. In practice, this allows their members to vote for Bolsonaro or cast a blank ballot.
Even the Democratic Labor Party, or PDT, of third-placed leftist candidate Ciro Gomes, offered only partial support for Haddad. Gomes himself, who made it clear on Sunday that he would not back front-runner Jair Bolsonaro, has disappointed the PT by going on holiday to Europe in the middle of the second-round campaign. Meanwhile, Gomes’s vice presidential candidate, Katia Abreu, announced that she would annul her vote and even suggested that Haddad should quit the race in favour of Gomes, who polls show would stand a better chance against the ex-paratrooper.
In Brasilia Haddad holed up in his hotel room recording videos and holding internal party meetings with a small circle of staff and engaging in none of the raucous rallies that characterized previous PT elections campaigns.