With votes being counted in Brazil following the presidential election on Sunday, populist Senator Flavio Bolsonaro was leading the race ahead of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro seeks to continue the right-wing populist movement started by his father, Jair Bolsonaro, while Lula is seeking his fourth non-consecutive term. With nearly 99% of the ballots processed, Flavio Bolsonaro has received 47.2% of the vote.
Lula has 45%, according to the electoral court. Since neither candidate received enough votes to win outright on Sunday, the court announced that Bolsonaro and Lula will face each other in a runoff. Bolsonaro is monitoring the vote count in Brasilia, the country's capital, while Lula is following it from Sao Paulo.
Because Brazil uses electronic voting machines, final results are expected to be available within several hours of the polls closing. You can watch our livestream on the Brazil election results below. Fabio de Sa e Silva, a professor of Brazilian studies at the University of Oklahoma, told DW that the right was currently on the rise in Brazil, making it difficult for Lula to change the course of the election.
"He still has a chance, based on the numbers, but the momentum is with the right," said de Sa e Silva. "The big news tomorrow will be not that we have a runoff... but it is a takeover that happened in Congress by the far-right," the researcher said. He added that it will be very hard for Lula to govern with Brazil's new Congress, even if he eventually secures another term.
Lula and Bolsonaro wrapped up their campaigns on Saturday in Brazil's economic powerhouse state of Sao Paulo. The 80-year-old Lula capped off his campaign with a tour through the city of Sao Paulo, vowing to "defeat the far right." Organizers said some 150,000 of Lula's supporters turned up for the rally in Brazil's largest city. Lula has campaigned on continuing his left-leaning Workers' Party platform, comprising welfare programs, state-funded development and income redistribution.
"The people will have to choose between strengthening the democratic regime and barbarism ... between progress and backwardness," he said as he cast his ballot on Sunday. Flavio Bolsonaro, 45, has served as the Liberal Party's senator for Rio de Janeiro since 2019. On Saturday, he led a motorcycle parade through Sao Paulo's countryside cities of Santa Barbara d'Oeste and Americana.
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