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Brazil presidential polls: Bolsonaro to face Lula in run-off

The race will go to a second-round vote on October 30
Brazil presidential polls: Bolsonaro to face Lula in run-off
Brazil presidential polls: Bolsonaro to face Lula in run-off

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ ITDC NEWS Brazil's presidential election is headed for a run-off vote as neither of the candidates was able to hit the 50 per cent vote mark needed to win in the first round. According to the national electoral authority, with 99.7 % of votes counted, President Jair Bolsonaro secured only 43.3 per cent of the votes while former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was ahead with 48.4% votes.

As neither got a majority of support, the race will go to a second-round vote on October 30.

Ahead of Sunday's vote, several media reports said that opinion surveys had predicted the left-wing Lula, who was president from 2003 to 2010, leading the right-wing Bolsonaro by 10-15 per cent points.

Meanwhile, Bolsonaro had questioned polls that showed him losing to Lula in the first round. The integrity of the electronic voting system was also questioned by him. Bolsonaro also said that he might not concede if he lost.

Political analysts had said that a wide margin victory for Lula could sap Bolsonaro of support to challenge the electoral results.

"The extreme right is very strong across Brazil," said Carlos Melo, a political scientist at the Insper business school. "Lula's second-round victory is now less likely. Bolsonaro will arrive with a lot of strength for re-election," he added.

Lula put an optimistic spin on the result saying that, it would only postpone his victory and that he looked forward to going head-to-head with Bolsonaro in a debate. "We can compare the Brazil he has built to the one we built," he told reporters.

Bolsonaro was also calm and confident in his post-election remarks, disparaging polling firms for failing to gauge his support. "I plan to make the right political alliances to win this election," he told the media.

Meanwhile, supporters of Bolsonaro chanted that only fraud could prevent a Bolsonaro victory.

On the other hand, Lula, who left the presidency 12 years ago with record popularity is disliked by many Brazilians after he was convicted of accepting bribes. His conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court, allowing him to run again for president this year, along with nine other candidates.

A career lawmaker turned self-styled outsider, Bolsonaro rode a backlash against Lula's Workers Party to victory in 2018, uniting strands of Brazil's rights, from evangelical Christians to farming interests and pro-gun advocates.

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