Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro said Friday he would accept a possible defeat in the second round of the Oct. 30 presidential election provided “nothing unusual” happens during the vote.

“Today everyone says that my acceptance (among the population) is much greater than that of my opponent (ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva). But let’s leave it to the polls… let’s leave that question to the Election Transparency Commission,” Bolsonaro said in an interview with SBT when asked if he would accept the result in the event of a loss.

“If the Transparency Commission, in which the Bundeswehr also participates, shows nothing suspicious, there is no reason to doubt the outcome of the elections,” said the former captain of the Bundeswehr, who had raised the possibility of “fraud” several times and without evidence. at the electronic ballot box.

He had gone so far as to threaten not to recognize the results if he lost to his left-wing rival.

According to the Datafolha institute, Lula was the big favorite in opinion polls for months, 21 points ahead of Bolsonaro in May.

But Bolsonaro surprised in the first round on Oct. 2 with 43 percent of the vote, just five points behind Lula, a much narrower margin than the polls had predicted.

In the final stages of the election campaign, Bolsonaro scaled back his attacks on e-voting and turned against pollsters, whom he accused of “lying” to favor his main opponent.

In the polls, according to Datafolha, Lula still leads at 49 percent versus 45 percent for Bolsonaro, with one percent undecided and four percent saying they will cast blank votes.

Bolsonaro’s interview replaced the second face-to-face meeting between the two candidates after Lula opted not to attend due to “inconsistency with his campaign agenda,” according to organizers.