Brazil elections: Lula defeats Bolsonaro but heads to run-off election

Brasil will hold a run-off election on October 30, after no candidate managed to reach more than 50% of the votes on Sunday.

Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvia of the PT, obtained 54,642,032 (47.8%) votes, while current Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, of the PL, obtained 49,948,973 (43.7%). In a surprising third place came Simone Tebet of the right-wing MDB party with 4,824,667 votes (4.2%), while leftist Ciro Gomez of the PDT, who was third in the polls, fell to fourth place with 3,497,688 (3.1%).

More than 156 million Brazilians were eligible to vote in the first round of the presidential election. The favorite candidates were President Jair Bolsonaro, who is seeking reelection, and the leftist Lula da Silva, former president between 2003 and 2011.

The results of the first round are largely unexpected, as all polls predicted Lula to win by a wide margin. However, in Minas Gerais, a key state that decides who wins the general elections, Lula reached 47.7 percent, compared to 44 percent for Bolsonaro. Since 1989, all candidates who won the presidency also won in Minas Gerais, where the voting trend is similar in Minas Gerais to the national trend.

Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro voted for Bolsonaro with 51.19% and 50% of the votes respectively.

It was an election day with long lines of up to three hours to vote in some regions. The Superior Electoral Tribunal allowed those who arrived at the polling station before the closing of the polls to vote.

According to data from the Electoral Justice, abstention for these 2022 elections is close to 14 million votes. However, this number is lower than the more than 30 million people who did not go to their polling stations, representing slightly more than 20% of Brazilians.

In addition to the presidential race, the country is renewing the entire Chamber of Deputies and one-third of the Senate. The composition of these institutions will be key to advancing the elected president's agenda. Elections for governors and legislative assemblies in the 26 states and the Federal District are also being held.

The current governor of Paraná, Ratinho Júnior of the PSD, was reelected to the office on Sunday, with 3,319,139 votes (69.75%), defeating Roberto Requião of Lula's PT, who only obtained 1,235,093 (25.96%).

Fernando Haddad of the Workers' Party, who lost to Bolsonaro in 2018, obtained 34.75% of the votes on Sunday, losing the governorship to Tarcísio, who achieved 43.37%.