Brazil’s general election this October presents a fragmented, polarized, and corrupted political landscape. This is a consequence of five turbulent years defined by mass protests, severe recession, and a soft coup in which the establishment broke with the 1988 post-dictatorship settlement to oust the Workers’ Party (PT) from power.

The candidate leading the polls is the center-left former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The problem is that he is in prison for corruption charges stemming from the infamous Lava Jato investigation. Following a court ruling on September 5, Lula is now ineligible to run, thanks to the “Clean Slate” law he himself introduced. With the establishment center-right Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) at historic lows, and a far-right challenger picking up the latter’s slack, the presidential contest is more open than ever.

The challenger, Jair Bolsonaro, was stabbed at a campaign rally yesterday by a man claiming he was “fulfilling an order from God.” Bolsonaro’s running mate, retired Army General Hamilton Mourão, incorrectly argued the attacker was a PT militant, playing on the anti-PT sentiment of his base. The attack escalates levels of political violence this year, following an incident in which shots were fired at Lula’s caravan in March, and the killing of left-wing Rio councilwoman Marielle Franco in the same month.