With 80% of the votes counted, President Jair Bolsonaro reaches 44.81% of the votes, compared to Luiz Inazio “Lula” da Silva’s 46.53%, according to official results. Lula surpassed the current president and the expectation grows about an eventual victory in the first round.
With this result there will be a second round on October 30, since none of the contenders exceeded 50% of the votes.
Further back are Simone Tebet, with 4.41%, and Ciro Gomes, with 3.09%. All other candidates get less than 1%. Pre-election polls gave Lula the lead.
Closing of the elections
After an intense election day, at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday the polling stations in Brazil closed, although those who have arrived at schools until that time will be able to vote normally, reported the newspaper Clarín.
Due to the long lines, the vote will be extended despite the fact that the closing time was met. This is due to the large number of voters and difficulties in biometric validation in identification.
Some 156.4 million Brazilians elect president between Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro, who have already voted.
Bolsonaro said when voting in Rio de Janeiro that “clean elections must be respected,” while Lula expressed that he wanted Brazil “to return to normality,” since “it needs to recover the right to be happy.”
According to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, in the first three hours of voting 130 people were temporarily arrested for various violations of electoral laws, ranging from propaganda activities in favor of candidates to alleged attempts to bribe voters.
For his part, Lula voted in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Sao Paulo region, where he trained as a union leader in the 70s.
In addition to the president, governors, deputies, a third of the Senate are elected and the regional legislative assemblies are renewed.
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