8 Oct 2018

Brazilians vote in fraught presidential election

From Morning Report, 6:12 am on 8 October 2018

About 147 million Brazilians are voting in a presidential election that's been described as the most polarising since the country returned to democracy three decades ago. The frontrunner was campaigning from jail until he was banned from standing in the election. His main rival was stabbed while on the campaign trail and seriously injured. Now the man leading the polls is a Margaret Thatcher-quoting, Donald Trump-admiring populist who is "in favor of a dictatorship". So what path will a country suffering from a prolonged economic recession and extreme violence choose today? Our correspondent in Brazil is Matt Sandy.