(Bloomberg) -- The left-wing Workers’ Party of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has a chance of reaching a highly-contested runoff vote in Brazil’s election, current President Michel Temer said in an interview.

Domestic politics are divided into extremes that include an ultra-conservative appealing to much of society and a populist, Temer said at Bloomberg’s office in New York City on Monday. That division isn’t necessarily negative, Temer said, as it makes it easier for voters to make up their mind.

Temer took power after Lula’s successor, Dilma Rousseff, was impeached in 2016 for breaking fiscal laws. Temer, who had been Rousseff’s vice president, was branded by many on the left as a traitor and coup-leader. Two years later the Workers’ Party has a chance for a comeback. Its candidate, former Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad is runner-up and likely to make it to a runoff vote.

In the interview, Temer pledged to resume efforts to approve a reform of the country’s bloated pension system. He also said that his speech to this year’s United Nations General Assembly will be marked by optimism about Brazil’s economy.

To contact the reporters on this story: Priscilla Murphy in Brasilia Newsroom at pmurphy134@bloomberg.net;Shery Ahn in New York City at sahn53@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Raymond Colitt at rcolitt@bloomberg.net, Matthew Malinowski

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