BRAZILIANS are voting today in a highly polarised election that could determine if the country returns a leftist to the helm of the world’s fourth-largest democracy or keeps the far-right incumbent in office for another four years.

The race pits incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro against his political nemesis, former president Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva. There are nine other candidates, but their support pales compared to that for Mr Bolsonaro and Lula.

Recent opinion polls have given Lula a commanding lead — the last Datafolha survey published Saturday found a 50 to 36 per cent advantage for Lula among those who intended to vote. It interviewed 12,800 people, with a margin of error of two percentage points.