Brazil Presidential Debate Cancelled Amid Candidate Boycotts and Supreme Court Bomb Scare

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his main opponent Flavio Bolsonaro skipped a final debate ahead of Sunday's first-round presidential election, coinciding with a brief bomb scare outside the country's Supreme Court.

Opting out of the scheduled event, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva appeared on a popular podcast with millions of YouTube subscribers. Meanwhile, Flavio Bolsonaro—son of the former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro—claimed his withdrawal was due to what he termed "censorship imposed by the electoral court" after authorities barred the broadcaster from displaying an empty seat for President Lula on stage.

Organised by TV Globo, the country’s most popular broadcaster, the Thursday debate was called off after electoral and Supreme Court rulings generated legal uncertainty. President Lula holds a slight polling advantage going into Sunday's vote, though projections show the two frontrunners neck and neck for a potential October 25 runoff.

On the same day, police cleared a bomb threat outside the Supreme Court after a suspect attempted to scale the court's fences and threw a backpack onto a bus stop. Military police spokesperson Raphael Broocke confirmed that the backpack contained only personal belongings, though the suspect remains in custody as investigations continue.

The Supreme Court has faced ongoing criticism from the political right, notably following the 2025 conviction of ex-leader Jair Bolsonaro in connection with a coup plot, amid a wider fraud scandal influencing the final weeks of the campaign.