BRASILIA, (Reuters) - Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva holds a solid polling lead going into Sunday’s election against incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, with a chance of clinching the race in the first round, fresh surveys showed on Saturday.

Brazil’s most polarized election in decades will decide whether to return to power the leftist leader who spent time in jail on corruption convictions or the right-wing populist who has attacked the voting system and threatened to contest defeat.

Two polls released on Saturday showed Lula with a majority of valid votes, which would mean outright victory, avoiding a bruising runoff.

Pollster IPEC showed Lula winning 51% of valid votes, excluding blank and spoiled ballots, and a Datafolha poll showed the popular two-term president with 50% of valid votes.

Both surveys, from some of Brazil’s most established polling teams, had a margin of error of 2 percentage points and showed Lula with an advantage of 14 percentage points over Bolsonaro.

Two other polls released on Saturday by CNT/MDA and Genial/Quaest showed Lula with 48% and 49% of valid votes respectively, within the margin of error of outright victory.

If none of the 11 presidential candidates gets more than 50% of valid votes, the two front-runners – almost certainly Lula and Bolsonaro – would go to a second-round vote on Oct. 30.

Lula told reporters he was hoping to finish the election on Sunday: “I can only be optimistic. There is very little to go to reach 50% plus one vote,” he said.