Brazil celebrates 200th Independence Day, Bolsonaro says election is "fight between good and evil"

Brazilians celebrated the 200th Independence Day from Portugal on Wednesday, marching across the country’s cities on Wednesday dressed in the national colours of yellow and green. Crowds streamed past the city's famous Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, while President Jair Bolsonaro mixed an Independence Day military parade with a political rally in the capital city of Brasilia.

The parade included marching troops, armoured vehicles, air force flyovers and tractors from the powerful farm sector, a core demographic behind Bolsonaro's political support. Opponents have criticized the far-right leader for co-opting the bicentennial national holiday to serve his re-election campaign, in which opinion polls show him trailing behind leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ahead of a heated election set for Oct. 2.

"We have a fight between good and evil ahead of us," Bolsonaro told his supporters, amid cries of "Lula, you thief" and banners calling for military intervention in Brazil's Supreme Court.

The president's criticisms of Brazil's voting system have stirred calls for a military coup from some of his more radical backers. Some fear he is laying the groundwork to claim electoral fraud like his U.S. ally, former President Donald Trump, and reject a potential Lula victory.

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