Incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva faces Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is imprisoned for plotting a military coup. The Brazilian president is directly elected and candidates must obtain more than 50% of the vote to avoid a second round. Polling stations closed at 5:00 p.m. BRT / 9:00 p.m. BST.
First round results live
…
Goalkeeper graphic. Source: IS
How the election takes place
The president of Brazil is elected directly: each voter’s ballot counts equally and there is no electoral college. If no candidate obtains more than 50% of the votes cast in the first round, a second round will take place three weeks later between the two candidates with the highest score.
According to opinion polls, two candidates come out on top. The first is the outgoing president, Lula, 80, a veteran of the Brazilian left who served three terms. During his first two terms, between 2003 and 2011, he was credited with overseeing a historic period of commodity-fueled growth and poverty reduction.
Brazilian presidents are limited to two consecutive terms, so if he wins this time, he will not be able to run in 2030. In 2018, Lula was imprisoned for corruption, although his conviction was overturned after 580 days behind bars.
Lula’s main opponent is far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, son of Jair Bolsonaro, currently in prison. Flávio is a 45-year-old lawyer and former senator from Rio de Janeiro. Bolsonaro Sr. is serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a failed coup after losing the 2022 election, but he supported his son’s campaign and hopes to regain his freedom if he wins.
Opinion polls suggest no other candidate will come close to the two favorites, but there is also no clear leader in the polls for the October 25 runoff. The new leader will take power on January 5, 2027.
One of the most important states to watch is Minas Gerais, a mountainous mining and agricultural region larger than France with 21 million people, and which is Brazil’s flagship state. Since the return of democracy in the 1980s, no candidate has won the presidency without triumphing in Minas. In 2018, Jair Bolsonaro beat Lula’s candidate there by more than 1.7 million votes and was elected president.
Four years later, Lula reclaimed the state with less than 50,000 inhabitants and also won the national race. History suggests that whoever wins Minas will win the election.
Gn world
