SAO PAULO (AP) — The top leftist candidate for Brazil's presidency on Wednesday launched sharp criticism at the far-right front-runner after avoiding direct attacks for most of the campaign — a shift in strategy that comes as new polls show Jair Bolsonaro's lead widening for the first time and with just days left before the vote.
Haddad accused Bolsonaro of using WhatsApp messages to spread falsehoods about him and his family. One among many claimed Haddad was plotting to let authorities choose the gender of 5 year olds. Another showed a manipulated picture of his running mate Manuela D'Avila wearing a shirt that read "Jesus is a transvestite." A third featured the candidate supposedly saying election day had been switched from Sunday to Oct.8.
Haddad had been steadily rising in the polls due to the endorsement of jailed former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has been barred by the courts from running. But two new polls this week showed his momentum stalled, with Bolsonaro building on his lead for Sunday's first round.
The polls also showed the two in a dead heat for the likely Oct. 28 runoff, even though the rightist candidate has had little television presence and has been unable to campaign in person since being hospitalized after a Sept. 6 stabbing. He was released on Saturday.
Haddad had largely avoided direct attacks on Bolsonaro until now, apparently because Workers' Party strategists believed the far-right congressman would alienate so many voters that he would be easy prey in the runoff. Bolsonaro is noted for flamboyant insults of female opponents and gays, as well as expressing nostalgia for the country's past military dictatorship.
A Datafolha poll published on Tuesday, however, showed Bolsonaro leading Haddad 32 to 21 percent, up from 28-22 last week.
Haddad had earlier led when matched head to head against Bolsonaro in a runoff, but the new survey showed the two within the poll's 2 percentage point margin of error, with the rightist up 44-42 percent.
Datafolha interviewed 3,240 voters on Tuesday.
The Worker's Party opened a WhatsApp channel to counter the social media smears and said it said it had received more than 5,000 reports of falsehoods being spread on messaging apps within the first 12 hours.
"It seems Bolsonaro's campaign is acting very strongly with fake news against my family, my work as education minister," Haddad said. "These are very vulgar accusations, with vulgar images."
"WhatsApp is for cowards, not for serious politicians," Haddad said earlier.
Bolsonaro did not immediately respond to the allegations.
He said earlier he would skip the final debate before Sunday's vote because of medical orders. He left the hospital only four days ago.
Disclaimer: This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Associated Press (AP) wire.
