Jean-Claude Gerez (in Salvador de Bahia), edited by Laura Laplaud 10:01 a.m., October 02, 2022, modified at 10:02 a.m., October 02, 2022

While Brazilian voters are called to the polls this Sunday to elect their new president, 33 million of them are suffering from hunger and 125 million are food insecure.

An unacceptable situation for Lula, the former left-wing president, presidential candidate against outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro, who promises three meals a day for all.

It is an election against a backdrop of poverty.

156 million Brazilian voters are called to the polls this Sunday for the first round of the presidential election.

A ballot under high tension which could see the former left-wing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva being elected in the first round and the outgoing far-right president Jair Bolsonaro refusing the verdict of the polls.

Almost four years after the start of his mandate, the outgoing president leaves a country in great pain: 33 million Brazilians suffer from hunger and 125 million are food insecure.

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Maximum tension between two sworn enemies

In Salvador de Bahia, on Saturday afternoon, women are hoping, in the premises of the single favela power station, for the distribution of a basket containing basic necessities or a bottle of gas for cooking.

Among them, Zilma, 40 years old.

“Before the pandemic, it was already difficult but after, it was worse,” she says.

"I was able to eat thanks to my family and the basic necessities basket that we are given here, but it was sometimes difficult to be without gas, to have to cook with alcohol or to choose between lunch and the evening one."

In Salvador, 240,000 families live below the poverty line

For Marcio Lima, from the single power plant of the favelas, the situation continues to deteriorate.

"Someone who receives a minimum wage in Brazil cannot even buy a basket with basic products. And those who do not work live below the poverty line. In Salvador, that represents 240,000 families", laments he.

Recently, Jair Bolsonaro had an 8 billion euro aid plan adopted for the most modest.

Not enough to convince Claudia, 47, to vote for him.

"Today, if I have to vote, it will be for Lula because he has done a lot for poor people," she said at the microphone of Europe 1.

Lula, who is the favorite in the latest polls, promises to feed the population.

An image of a savior and the expectations he will have to assume if he is elected.