Presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro announced Tuesday that he will not participate in the TV Bandeirantes debate scheduled for Sunday. The announcement came during an event at the political committee of São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas, where 16 of the 27 regional MDB directorates formally declared support for Bolsonaro's candidacy.
"I'm not going, it's not planned to go to this Sunday's debate. We are analyzing, my technical team will have the final say on whether to go to the last debate," Bolsonaro said to journalists.
The candidate indicated that his campaign is still evaluating whether to attend the final debate before the runoff, scheduled for October 23 on TV Globo. He did not confirm participation in that event either, leaving the decision to his campaign's technical team.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva confirmed his attendance at the Band debate on Sunday. According to reports, Lula and Bolsonaro have not faced each other in any debate since the first round of voting.
Bolsonaro has scheduled a campaign event on Avenida Paulista with Deputy Nikolas Ferreira on Sunday, the same day as the Band debate. According to reporting, the candidate is expected to cancel his television debate participation in favor of the in-person event.
During the initial phase of the first round, Bolsonaro had stated that he wanted to debate his opponent, Lula. The absence from the scheduled debates reduces opportunities for direct confrontation between the two candidates in the final stretch of the campaign, with the runoff election set for October 27.