Battered by a string of political crises, Flavio Bolsonaro on Saturday prepared to formally launch his candidacy for Brazil's October presidential election, seeking to follow in the footsteps of his father, Jair Bolsonaro. Far-right firebrand Jair Bolsonaro anointed his eldest son, a senator, as his successor after being sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup following his loss to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil's 2022 election. At a convention in Sao Paulo, the Liberal Party (PL) will officially name Flavio Bolsonaro, 45, as its candidate to face off against Lula, who is seeking re-election at the age of 80. Wearing Brazilian national team jerseys, which have become a symbol of the Bolsonaro movement, supporters beat drums and waved flags inside a warehouse next to Sao Paulo's Pacaembu Stadium. "We would have liked our candidate to be Jair Bolsonaro, but today Flavio is the best choice," Fernando Moeno, a 50-year-old retired military police officer attending the convention, told AFP. Flavio is promising change: he wants to free Brazil of crime, inflation, high taxes and Lula, who is seeking a fourth term in office. "We are on a plane without a pilot," he said last week. The senator was neck-and-neck with Lula in the polls until he was hit by a series of scandals: ties to a disgraced banker, a family feud, and new tariffs imposed by ally US President Donald Trump. Pollster Datafolha published a survey Friday showing that in a runoff election Lula would win 48 percent of votes to Flavio's 43 percent. A wave of scandals