BARREIRINHAS, Brazil (Reuters) – The home of Crenilton Santos Ferreira and his wife, Claudia Adriana, sits at the end of a sandy path in the scorched northeast Brazilian state of Maranhao, the poorest in the nation.

Maria da Luz, 54, who plans to vote for leftist candidate Fernando Haddad of the Workers Party (PT) in Brazil’s presidential election, holds her three-month-old granddaughter as the baby smiles at her mother Maria Natividade (R), 18, and her aunt Ida (C), 14, as they arrive home after school, in Morro Do Veridiano, Belagua Municipality in Maranhao state, Brazil, October 11, 2018. “I’ll probably vote for Papa Lula, for his candidate. The boss has always helped us,” said Maria da Luz. REUTERS/Nacho Doce

Maranhenses, as locals are known, cast almost 80 percent of their ballots for the leftist Workers Party (PT) in Brazil’s presidential election in 2014. This month, they re-elected their governor, a member of the Brazilian Communist Party, with almost 60 percent of the vote.

As Brazil’s presidential election nears an Oct. 28 run-off, however, Ferreira plans to vote for Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right congressional firebrand from the distant city of Rio de Janeiro.

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