Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is hoping his record as the most popular president in Brazilian history can trump the disgrace of a bribe to give him a third term at the helm – 12 years after his last.

After overcoming childhood poverty, cancer, a deep personal loss and a controversial prison sentence, the 76-year-old former metal worker and union leader faces far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in a first round election on Sunday.

Known for his political savvy and folksy touch, Lula left office in 2010 as a working-class hero who spearheaded a resource-driven economic boom that helped lift 30 million people out of poverty.

His approval rating was an unprecedented 87 percent.

But then he got caught up in a massive corruption scandal that engulfed some of Brazil’s most influential politicians, business leaders and the Workers’ Party (PT).

Lula was jailed in 2018, effectively eliminating him as a favorite in that year’s presidential race – which Bolsonaro won.

He spent more than 18 months in prison before being released pending appeal.

His convictions were overturned last year by the Supreme Court, which found the lead judge on the case was biased. Since then, Lula has led Bolsonaro in opinion polls.

The left icon has dismissed any idea of ??revenge in the event of re-election.

“I stayed calm and prepared the way Mandela prepared for 27 years, the way Gandhi prepared his whole life, to get out of prison without anger,” he said in Sao Paulo last week, describing himself himself as a man of “peace and love”. “

Lula criss-crossed Brazil during the election campaign, avoiding large crowds for security reasons and never without his bulletproof vest.

As popular as he is among the poor, Lula is equally loathed by supporters of Bolsonaro as the embodiment of Brazilian corruption.

However, he has recovered from the reputational damage better than his Labor Party – distrust of the party was a key reason for Bolsonaro’s 2018 election victory.

Despite fears at the time that his brand of leftism was too radical, Lula’s 2003-10 government blended pioneering social programs with pro-market economic policies.

He earned a reputation as a moderate and pragmatic leader.

Lula also made Brazil a key player on the international stage, helping to secure the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Lula was once dubbed “the most popular politician in the world” by none other than Barack Obama.

But just as he was settling into the role of Elder Statesman, he was swamped by “Operation Car Wash” – the sweeping investigation that uncovered a massive corruption web centered on state oil company Petrobras.

Prosecutors struggled to prove that Lula was behind the plan.

Instead, he was sentenced to 26 years for accepting a triplex beachfront condo and ranch property renovations as bribes to bribe access to hefty Petrobras contracts.

Lula has always denied the allegations.

Lula grew up in abject poverty, the seventh of eight children in an illiterate farming family in the arid northeastern state of Pernambuco.

When he was seven, his family joined a wave of migration to the industrial heartland of Sao Paulo.

Lula worked as a shoeshine boy and peanut seller before becoming a locksmith at the tender age of 14.

In the 1960s he lost a finger in an accident at work.

He quickly rose to become chairman of his union and in the 1970s led large-scale strikes that challenged the then military dictatorship.

In 1980 he co-founded the Workers’ Party, which he ran for as president nine years later.

Lula lost three presidential candidates from 1989 to 1998, eventually winning again in 2002 and four years later.

This is his sixth presidential campaign.

The father of five survived throat cancer and lost his wife of four decades, Marisa Leticia Rocco, to a stroke in 2017.

In his signature husky voice, Lula said he’s “in love again like I’m 20” with Rosangela “Janja” da Silva, a sociologist and PT activist, whom he married in May.

If he wins, Lula has said he won’t seek a second term.