With the October 25 presidential runoff approaching, left-leaning parties in Brazil have been organising public demonstrations, restructuring their digital outreach, and advancing a labour reform package.

In the October 4 first-round ballot, Lula — aged 80 — trailed right-leaning Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, whose father Jair Bolsonaro previously held the presidency, by a margin of 47 percent to 45 percent. A Datafolha survey released on Thursday found the gap between the two candidates had contracted from four points to two, a margin within the poll's statistical error range. With Bolsonaro holding 51 percent of valid votes to Lula's 49, the gap between the two candidates fell squarely within the poll's stated two-point error range.

Aiming to secure a fourth term in office, Lula has shifted focus toward the approximately 33.4 million registered voters — accounting for more than one in five — who stayed away from the polls in the first round. Eduardo Grin, a political scientist at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, told a broadcaster that the race remained competitive and that a viable path to victory for Lula had not been foreclosed.

A constitutional amendment ratified by Congress on Wednesday will end Brazil's six-day working week, granting employees two paid rest days per week while leaving their pay unchanged — a pledge Lula made during his presidential campaign. Under the proposed change, a five-day working week would replace the so-called "6x1" arrangement — under which employees work six consecutive days before receiving a single day of rest — while the maximum weekly hours permitted would be brought down from 44 to 40 over a phased timeline.

With ten days remaining before the runoff vote, Lula — whose public standing grew out of years spent organising within the trade union movement — posted a result at the ballot box that his campaign could present as a reflection of broad backing from working-class voters, a constituency that has consistently formed the backbone of his electoral base. Bolsonaro, despite a prior record of opposing the proposal, cast a vote in its favour — a position shared by the broad majority of those who weighed in on the measure. Lula credited the policy shift to what he described as public pressure, telling reporters that demonstrations in the streets had driven the outcome.

Among the measures put forward by the president are debt relief targeted at small businesses, new grant funding for universities, steps to reduce fuel costs for consumers, and a proposal to make public transport free at weekends. Bolsa Familia, the welfare scheme directing cash transfers to low-income Brazilian households, had seen its payment amounts lifted by the administration before voting in the first round got underway.

The package of economic measures has put public finances under the spotlight in a country where government debt already exceeds 80 percent of gross domestic product. Marcos Mendes, an economist at the Insper research institute, told a broadcaster that the administration appeared to be setting aside fiscal discipline and that the accumulation of benefit programmes bore the features of what he described as indirect electoral inducement.

Lula has also moved to restructure a digital operation he described as the most poorly coordinated of his career, aiming to put pressure on the right's well-established presence across social media platforms. Among those brought into the fold is Ana Elisa, a 21-year-old lawmaker newly seated from Minas Gerais state, whose social media presence draws an audience in the millions — part of a broader push to bring digitally influential young politicians onto the team.

Lula has taken to calling himself the "selfie king," a label tied to his use of casual, camera-facing video clips as a campaigning tool. Acquiring a mobile phone is something he has tied to a specific condition: a WhatsApp channel supporting Lula must first reach five million subscribers, a figure that would mark the end of his noted reluctance to use the devices. Membership in the movement aligned with Lula drew registrations from roughly 4.6 million people.

Devised by lawmaker Andre Janones, the platform hands followers a set of online tasks aimed at circulating campaign content while also inviting everyday users to post videos of their own.

Street-level turnout across Brazil has reached a scale not documented in the country for some time, with people gathering in numbers that organisers say place these protests among the largest in recent memory. Crowds composed of students and social-movement groups, many wearing red in association with Lula's Workers' Party, gathered behind banners calling for an end to Bolsonaro-era governance and affirming support for democratic processes. Participants expressed concern about a possible return to the approach taken during Jair Bolsonaro's 2019–2022 presidency — a period that drew scrutiny over its pandemic response, questions about the treatment of minority groups, and debates around the functioning of democratic institutions — whose son, Flavio Bolsonaro, has since entered the political arena.

Grin argued that the street demonstrations carry a multiplier effect on electoral turnout, expressing confidence that the scale and pace of the mobilisation would draw additional voters to the polls.