Polling stations closed on Sunday in Brazil, where more than 156 million voters were called to the polls for a presidential election that favorite Lula hopes to win in the first round against outgoing Jair Bolsonaro, who threatens to contest the result.
This result should be known a few hours after the start of the count. Polling stations closed at 5:00 p.m. (8:00 p.m. GMT).
Brazilians rushed en masse to choose their president, but also the deputies, a third of the senators and the governors of the 27 states, with long queues in this immense country of continental dimensions.
“If the elections are clean, no problem. May the best win! »said President Bolsonaro, 67, voting in the morning in Rio de Janeiro.
Annoyed by the insistent questions from the press, Bolsonaro, dressed in the national football team’s yellow and green jersey under which he wore a bulletproof vest, would not say clearly whether he would recognize the result.
He is, however, behind Lula in the polls (50% against 36%), with a record rejection rate due to his denial of the Covid which killed more than 680,000 people in Brazil, and the economic crisis in a country where more than 30 million people suffer from hunger.
Former left-wing president (2003-2010) Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 76, voted shortly before in Sao Bernardo do Campo, a working-class suburb of Sao Paulo.
“For me, this is the most important election”said the former steelworker, who is in his sixth presidential race to seek a third term, 12 years after leaving power at a stratospheric popularity rate (87%).
“We don’t want any more hatred, discord. We want a country at peace” he said in reference to the fractures of a very polarized Brazil, which has 214 million inhabitants.
In the polling stations, voters often dressed in Bolsonarist yellow and green or Lulist red sometimes had to wait several hours to vote because of the crowds.
“Reliability and Transparency”
“We are really scared because the climate is tense, but we preferred to show our opinion”, said in Sao Paulo Isabela Queiroz, 39, who came to vote, dressed in red, with a friend.
At midday, the president of the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), Alexandre de Moraes, assured that the vote was taking place “without problems”, and wanted to “reaffirm the reliability and transparency” of the electronic ballot box system. , many times criticized by Jair Bolsonaro.
“I am a Christian, I only vote for candidates who agree with what is written in the Bible, so I vote Bolsonaro”, said Aldeyze dos Santos, 40, housewife.
In the Amazon, indigenous Kambeba made the “L” of Lula with their fingers and went to a school to go to vote by means of motorized canoes on the Rio Negro river.
Jair Bolsonaro was widely criticized during his mandate for his environmental policy, with record deforestation and an upsurge in intrusions by gold miners or wood traffickers into indigenous reserves.
Enhanced security
Over the course of this crucial election for the future of the young democracy in Brazil, the clash at the Lula-Bolsonaro summit relegated the nine other candidates to the rank of extras.
“The question is whether there will be a second round or not, and that is impossible to predict”says Adriano Laureno, analyst at Prospectiva consultants.
A victory for Lula would mark an unexpected comeback four years after his controversial imprisonment on suspicion of corruption.
His campaign has called for a “meaningful vote” for a first-round victory. That would save him four more weeks of campaigning at loggerheads until a second round on October 30, which could allow the populist Bolsonaro to galvanize his troops and find new momentum.
“I think Bolsonaro will contest the result if he loses”says Laureno, “but that doesn’t mean he’s going to succeed. The international community will recognize the result quickly”.
Many fear a Brazilian remake of the 2021 Washington Capitol assault after Donald Trump’s defeat.
The military showed no sign of unrest and the US said it would ‘monitor closely’ the election, while more than 500,000 law enforcement personnel were mobilized to provide security .