Overview
- Neither President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva nor senator Flávio Bolsonaro attended the debate organized by Grupo Bandeirantes and a media consortium, leaving their podiums empty.
- Lula counterprogrammed the event by scheduling a televised interview on TV Record timed to begin roughly 30 minutes after the debate started, while Bolsonaro also stayed away and continued campaigning through other appearances.
- Former Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema withdrew at the last minute because the top two candidates were absent, leaving only Renan Santos, Ronaldo Caiado, and Augusto Cury on stage to criticize the no-shows.
- Datafolha polling shows Lula ahead in first-round voting intentions at about 39% versus roughly 33% for Bolsonaro while several surveys point to a narrowly divided potential runoff.
- The empty podiums removed a rare direct comparison between the leading candidates, gave lower-profile rivals more visibility, and could shift campaign messaging and voter impressions in the run-up to early October.