Flávio Bolsonaro took 47.4 percent against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s 44.6 percent. The October 24 runoff will pit the rivals’ sharply different political visions against each other.
Right-wing candidate Flávio Bolsonaro won the first round of Brazil’s presidential election with 47.4 percent of the vote, ahead of incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on 44.6 percent. A runoff is scheduled for October 24, Tagesspiegel reported.
The result contrasted with the visible show of support for Lula on the streets. Many voters wore red, the colour of his Workers’ Party, but the campaign has increasingly shifted to social media, where the right appeared to have an advantage, the report said.
Political scientist Yasmin Calmet linked the country’s current divide to polarisation that intensified under Jair Bolsonaro. Disappointment with Lula’s earlier government and corruption scandals helped mobilise conservative voters, she said, while political hostility spread into everyday life and divided families and friends.
Lula has campaigned on defending democracy, fighting poverty and expanding access to basic rights. Flávio Bolsonaro, though more restrained in public than his father, is ideologically close to Jair Bolsonaro’s political legacy, Tagesspiegel said. National sovereignty and public security have also figured prominently in the campaign.
Before the runoff, both candidates will seek support from voters who backed other contenders and from those who abstained. Calmet put abstention at about 22 percent.