On the streets of Novo Hamburgo in southern Brazil, the mood over the country’s general election on Sunday is one of despondency.

“I don’t know who I’ll vote for [for president],” says Magali Becker, an unemployed office manager whose husband works in the footwear industry on which the local economy depends. “Definitely not Lula [President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva], because of what he promised but hasn’t delivered. The shoe industry is falling apart.”