The ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvawith 47.93 of the valid votes in the elections this Sunday in Brazilwill have to define the Presidency in a second round with the current president, Jair Bolsonarowhich obtained 43.63%, according to official data.
According to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), following 97.45% had been scrutinized, no candidate will mathematically achieve more than half of the votes, a bar that is needed to guarantee the election without the need for a second round.
Jair Bolsonaro got a smaller difference at the polls compared to Lula Da Silvaless than four percentage points, than that indicated by all the polls, which predicted a victory for Lula with between 50% and 51% of the votes and an advantage of 14 points over the ruler (between 36% and 37%) .
The former president (2003-2010) was pointed out by all the polls as the favorite to prevail with a wide advantage, but he did not get more than half of the votes he expected to guarantee the election this Sunday and suffered severe setbacks in some states, such as São Paulo. For his part, the former president won in the largest electoral college in Brazil, with 47.7% of the valid votes, compared to 40.8% for the former president.
In the emblematic state of Rio de Janeiro, third electoral college, Bolsonaro’s advantage was even greater, with 50.9% compared to 40.7% of his rival. Bolsonaro is the first Brazilian president to seek re-election who comes in second in the first round.
Lula and Bolsonaro will define the Presidency of Brazil in a second round scheduled for October 30. Since Brazil regained democracy in 1985, only one president has managed to be elected in the first round: Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
Lula, leader of the Workers’ Party (PT), lost three elections (1989, 1994 and 1998) before being elected for the first time, but had to go to the second round in 2002 and when he was re-elected in 2006, as well as it happened to his political goddaughter and successor Dilma Rousseff in 2010 and 2014.
Bolsonaro assures that he will withdraw from politics if he loses the elections
Ehe president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, said a few weeks ago that he will withdraw from politics if he loses the October electionsin whose race he is second behind former president Lula da Silva, according to the polls.
“If it is God’s will, I continue (in the presidency). If not, I pass the band and I will pick myself up. Because, at my age (67), I have nothing else to do here on Earth if my passage through politics, on December 31 of this year,” he said Monday night, during an interview on podcasts aimed at young evangelicals.
The comments by Jair Bolsonaro, who declared a year ago that “only God” might remove him from power, are part of a more moderate rhetoric by the far-right president, in an apparent attempt to attract center voters ahead of the polarized elections of the October 2nd.
(With information from Agencia EFE and AFP)
