Lula and Bolsonaro to runoff for the presidency of Brazil

Former president Inacio Lula da Silva led the vote over current president Jair Bolsonaro in the presidential elections in Brazil this Sunday, but insufficient to win in the first round so there will be a second round on October 30.

After counting 96% of the vote, the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) reported that Lula da Silva, head of the Workers’ Party, got 47.83% of the votes, ahead of Bolsonaro, for the Liberal Party, with 43.82%. The other two candidates who obtained the most ballots were Simone Tebet (4.23%) and Ciro Gomes (3.06%).

The head of the electoral observation mission of the Organization of American States (OAS), the former Paraguayan Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez Lezcano, affirmed that this Sunday’s general elections in Brazil were “absolutely” normal.

The OAS mission deployed 55 experts from 17 countries in 15 of Brazil’s 26 federated states and in the federal district of Brasilia.

More than 156 million voters were summoned to this Sunday’s historic election to elect the next head of the Executive for the 2023-2027 period.

Also in dispute were the vice president, governors and deputy governors of the states and the Federal District, senators, federal deputies and state legislators.

The voting, which was open in the 26 states and the Federal District, was held in 5,570 cities in the country and in 181 locations abroad.

Voting was mandatory for people over 18 years of age and optional for illiterate people, people over 70 years of age and people 16 and 17 years of age.