'Do I vote out of gratitude or because I'm a business owner now?': Carlinhos Maia says he is undecided in Brazil's runoff

Carlinhos Maia decided to share with his followers a doubt he says he still hasn't settled. In a series of Instagram stories on Wednesday (Oct. 7), the 35-year-old influencer from Alagoas, who has more than 36 million followers, said he has not decided whether to vote for Lula (PT) or Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) in the presidential runoff. Days earlier, he had urged his audience not to skip voting.

On one side is his personal story. 'When I was poor, from the Northeast, in the countryside of Alagoas,' he recalled, citing a federal university that reached his region during Workers' Party governments and public policies that helped him and his mother. 'Today my doubt is whether I vote for Lula out of gratitude,' he said. On the other side is his life as an entrepreneur: 'Or whether I vote for the right, because the right looks out for business owners, and today I'm a business owner and I need that attention.'

Carlinhos also said he would like to see a change in government, criticized the focus on moral issues instead of health, education and sanitation, and said he feels he has no support from either side, describing attacks from both the left and the right, including over his sexual orientation. He argued that each voter should weigh their own circumstances when choosing.