Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Senator Flavio Bolsonaro square off in a closely watched election.
Brazil’s candidates hold final rallies before knife-edge run off
Reporting from Sao Paolo, Brazil
Lula’s supporters still think there is a chance, although he has been trailing behind the polls. It’s a very slight difference. This is the tightest election since 1989. This is such a tight election that people here have been discussing what would happen if they both have the exact number of votes. And in this case, Brazil’s legislation foresees that the eldest candidate would be elected president. So this would favour Lula, who’s 80. He’s twice the age of 45-year-old Senator Bolsonaro.
Brazil’s Federal Police are investigating possible crimes linked to public transport disruptions during Sunday’s presidential runoff, a senior official said, after the outages helped lead to an unprecedented Supreme Court decision to extend voting by two hours.
The probe covers five states: Bahia, Sao Paulo, Piaui, Sergipe and Alagoas, Brazil’s Federal Police director of investigations Dennis Cali said. A formal inquiry has only been opened in Sergipe so far, he added, with investigators interviewing people involved in providing transport.
If Lula wins the presidency after finishing second in the first round, he will have pulled off something no presidential candidate has managed to do since Brazil’s return to democracy.
No candidate who has finished second in the first round has gone on to win the runoff, but with polls showing the two virtually tied, Lula is hoping to break that streak.
Lula secured 45 percent of the vote on October 4, trailing Bolsonaro, who won 47 percent.
Vote counting for Brazil’s presidential runoff is underway after a Supreme Court extension expired.
Lula has 52.27% of the vote with 1.5% of ballots counted so far, according to the country’s official electoral body, while Bolsonaro has 47.73%.
Polls are due to have officially closed across Brazil in the presidential runoff between Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Flavio Bolsonaro after voting was extended by two hours nationwide in a shock move by the country’s Supreme Court.
Confusion is growing over a decision to extend voting by two hours in Brazil’s presidential runoff, after some polling stations had already closed and started transmitting their results.
Reporting from Brasilia, Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman said the decision came just three minutes after polls were scheduled to close at 5pm local time.
Both candidates had called for an extension in parts of the country, citing heavy rain and transport disruptions that prevented some voters from reaching polling stations.
But Brazil’s electronic voting system means that once a machine has been closed and its results transmitted, it cannot simply be reopened.
“So now we’re in limbo,” said Newman. “We’re not sure if some of the voting places will be able to stay open a bit longer or whether they’ll have to backtrack and say, ‘So sorry, but what happened up until 5 PM exactly are the only results that are going to be considered legitimate.’”
Brazil’s 2022 presidential election was one of the closest in the country’s history. Lula defeated incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the October 30 runoff, winning 50.9 percent of the vote to Bolsonaro’s 49.1 percent, which was a margin of about 2.1 million votes.
Bolsonaro performed better than expected in the first round, narrowing the gap with Lula, who had led in the polls. During the run-off count, Bolsonaro initially led before Lula overtook him as more votes were tallied. Bolsonaro did not immediately concede defeat.
Mario Sergio Lima, Brazil analyst at Medley Advisors, expressed concern that the two-hour extension of voting across Brazil could open up the final result to litigation.
“I don’t see any problem with the extension itself, as both campaigns requested it, but the way it was done, after polling places had closed, makes things more complicated,” he told Al Jazeera.
The decision was issued by Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin, and not the electoral court itself, minutes after the closure of polls at 5pm local time.
Reopening some closed polling stations with Brazil’s 100-percent electronic voting system is not straightforward, he added, and the electoral court has yet to issue a statement on the extension.
Heavy rain has left 163 polling locations without power in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, according to local media reports citing the Regional Electoral Court (TRE-MG). Senator Flavio Bolsonaro’s campaign had cited the closures in its request to extend voting.
The storm brought winds of up to 150km/h (93mph) in the south of the state and nearly 90km/h (56mph) in the capital, Belo Horizonte, damaging power lines and leaving thousands without electricity.
Electricity provider Cemig said about 110,000 customers remained without power in Belo Horizonte.
Both Lula’s and Bolsonaro’s campaigns requested an extension of voting hours. Lula’s cited public transport disruptions and accused local officials of interfering with voters’ access to polling stations. Bolsonaro’s campaign pointed to heavy rain and flooding that has left hundreds of polling locations without power.
“Nobody can give up voting because some unscrupulous businessman or a dishonest, criminal mayor tried to stop them,” Lula said.
“After the elections, the next step is to seek the arrest of these mayors for electoral crimes,” he added.
Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin extended voting nationwide by two hours, until 7pm local time (22:00GMT).
The election could have major consequences for the country’s Indigenous communities, with the two candidates offering very different visions for the future of the Amazon.
Under President Lula, deforestation has decreased and protections for Indigenous lands have expanded, while Bolsonaro has advocated opening protected areas to mining and farming.
In the northern Amazonian state of Amapa, where the discovery of offshore oil has raised both hope for development and concerns about the environment, our correspondent Monica Yanakiew spoke to Indigenous communities about what the election could mean for their future.
Brazil has an electronic voting system. Polls are now scheduled to close at 7pm local time (22:00 GMT) after the Supreme Court extended voting by two hours due to problems with public transport in many areas earlier in the day. Results will likely be announced two to three hours after polling stations close.
Both candidates spent the final days of the campaign making promises they hope will win over undecided voters.
Lula celebrated a major win in Congress after lawmakers approved a constitutional amendment he backed to shorten Brazil’s working week from six days to five without cutting wages. He also promised free public transport on weekends and backed debt relief for small businesses.
Bolsonaro, meanwhile, promised sweeping tax cuts, including restoring a pandemic-era tax break for the events and tourism industries phased out under Lula.
The tax-cut pledges come despite Bolsonaro’s promise to rein in government spending, raising questions about how he would balance the two.
The promises come as polls show the two candidates virtually tied, with the cost of living and public security weighing heavily on voters’ minds.
Brazil’s electoral authority says the vote count will be paused after the Supreme Court ruled to extend voting by two hours.
More than 33 million Brazilians stayed home during the first round of the presidential election earlier this month. Now, with the race too close to call, those voters could play a deciding role in Sunday’s run-off.
Voting is mandatory for most adults in Brazil, but 21 percent of voters still sat out the October 4 first round, the highest abstention rate in a general election since 1998.
Both candidates are hoping to win over some of those voters.
A Quaest poll released Wednesday suggests Lula may have a slight advantage among those who abstained or cast blank ballots in the first round, with about 40 percent saying they would vote for him, compared with 36 percent for Bolsonaro.
And with just 2.2 million votes separating the candidates in the first round, even a small change in turnout could tip the balance.
Read more here about Brazil’s abstaining voters.
Brazil’s Supreme Court, in a rare move, ruled to extend voting by two hours after complaints by Lula’s campaign about public transport issues.
Voters in Brazil are at the polls for the second time in a month, as Senator Flavio Bolsonaro and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva square off in the run-off election to decide who will hold the presidency for the next four years.
While Bolsonaro outperformed expectations during the first round of voting on October 4, when he beat Lula by less than two percentage points but failed to secure the majority needed to avoid a run-off, the leftist president has sought to rally supporters ahead of the second round.
The vote on Sunday will decide whether Brazil joins a growing list of countries across Latin America that have handed victories to far-right candidates promising closer ties with the United States, a hard hand on crime and insecurity, as well as market-friendly economic policies.
Brazil under Lula has emerged as a key holdout against that shift, and a Bolsonaro victory on Sunday would galvanise conservatives in the region seeking to extend their winning streak to the largest country in Latin America.
Read more here.
Brazilian voters are choosing between incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro in Sunday’s presidential run-off.
Lula, 80, is seeking a fourth, non-consecutive term in office. A member of the Workers’ Party, he previously served as president from 2003 to 2011 before returning to power in 2023. His government has prioritised social programmes and environmental protections, while he has sought to strengthen Brazil’s ties with developing countries.
His challenger, Flavio Bolsonaro, is the 45-year-old eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro. He is serving a 27-year prison sentence for his role in a coup plot following his election defeat four years ago. Running for the Liberal Party, Flavio Bolsonaro has campaigned on tackling crime, curbing government spending and inflation and strengthening ties with US President Donald Trump.
The candidates ran against each other in the first round on October 4 , with Bolsonaro receiving about 47 percent of the vote and Lula about 45 percent.
The run-off will determine whether Brazil continues under Lula’s left-wing government or shifts towards the right under the Bolsonaro family’s political leadership.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Brazil’s presidential election results after polls closed.
Stay with us for the latest news and analysis from across the country.
You can find our updates from earlier in the day here.
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