With 99.74 percent of the votes counted, Lula has won the first round with 48.36 percent in this Sunday’s elections, leaving behind Bolsonaro, who obtained 43.65 percent, according to Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE). There will be a runoff election between Lula and Bolsonaro.
Lula says that he will win the runoff on October 30
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2011) expressed confidence that he would win the October 30 runoff against incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.
“Throughout this campaign, we were ahead in the public opinion poll of all the institutes, even those who did not want us to win, and it always seemed to me that we were going to win these elections, and I want to tell you that we are going to win these elections. It is just an extension”, he said in one of the auditoriums of the Jaraguá hotel in this state capital.
Lula obtained 48.20 percent of the valid votes on Sunday, while Bolsonaro won 43.39 percent.
Bolsonaro is optimistic ahead of the runoff: “We defeated the lie.”
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was optimistic on Sunday ahead of the October 30 runoff, highlighting that the polls were wrong and that his party had a good result in the National Congress.
“We defeated the lie, now we have a second time ahead of us,” the president said in statements to the media.
Of the 156 454 011 Brazilians eligible to vote today, nearly 80% exercised their right to vote in the elections for which the leader of the Workers’ Party (PT), Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, and the Liberal Party, Jair Bolsonaro, were the favorites in all opinion polls.
For more than 156 million Brazilians eligible to vote, 496 856 polling stations opened their doors at 8:00 local time (11:00 GMT) and closed at 17:00 hours (20:00 GMT). The second round of elections will be held on October 30.
According to the latest poll, Lula led with 50.7 percent of the valid votes, while Bolsonaro was in second place with 41 percent in the race for the presidency, in which 11 candidates participated.
Polls showed until close to today’s vote that the former president was leading the voting intentions since the beginning of the campaign and even showed his possibility of victory in the first round. On the other hand, the right-winger Bolsonaro, second in the race, maintained high levels of rejection.
The key points of Lula’s campaign were the fight against hunger and poverty, in addition to the defense of the Amazon, which comprises Brazil’s biodiversity, and economic reactivation.
The left-wing candidate was the first of the favorites to exercise his right to vote at the polling station in the neighborhood of Asunción, in the state of São Paulo.
“This country needs to finally recover its right to be happy (…) We want a country that lives in peace, a country that has hope, a country with a future and a country that can produce and build its future from the participation of its society,” Lula said after voting.
Minister Alexandre de Moraes, the president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), said about the first round voting that a “calm and harmonious” environment has reigned. “Absolutely calm elections, a calm environment (…) We have noticed a smooth, calm climate,” said Moraes.