Lula da Silva, of the PT, received the most votes in the first round of Brazil’s presidential elections, but will have to contest a second ballot on the 30th with Jair Bolsonaro, of the PL. With 97% of the polls counted, the former president came in at 47.94% against 43.62% of the current head of state. In third place came Simone Tebet (MDB), with 4.21%, and in fourth place, Ciro Gomes (PDT), with 3.05%. The support of both Tebet and Ciro will now be highly coveted by Lula and Bolsonaro.
A much smaller advantage than the latest polls by the two main research institutes in the country, Datafolha and Ipec, released in the early hours of Sunday in Portugal, indicated: in Datafolha, Lula came out with 50% against 36% for Bolsonaro , Tebet with 6% and Ciro with 5%; at Ipec, the top two each scored a point more, Lula 51% and Bolsonaro 37%, and Tebet and Ciro both 5%.
The votes in the southeast, the region with the three largest electoral colleges, São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, made the difference between what had been predicted in the polls and the ballot box.
For the government of São Paulo, Brazil’s richest and most populous state, candidates Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), considered the dauphin of Bolsonaro, defeated Fernando Haddad (PT), considered the dauphin of Lula, by 42% to 35% , and two will battle in the second round, also on the 30th, after Haddad was voted the luminary in the polls. In turn, the PSDB, Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s party, lost the state after 30 years of rule: its candidate, current governor Rodrigo Garcia, came in third, with 18%.
In Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, the current governors, Romeu Zema (Novo) and Cláudio Castro (PL), both backed by Bolsonaro, won their respective states in the first round.
In other elections, the highlight is the election of Sergio Moro, former Bolsonaro minister and former Lava Jato judge, to the Senate, by Paraná.
tight duel
Lula, who turns 77 on the 27th, was president from 2003 to 2010 and left office with a popularity of over 80%, and a candidate in six elections, including the current one. Between 2010 and this vote, the former metallurgist and unionist twice helped elect Dilma Rousseff’s successor, but then saw her removed by depositionin 2016, and was arrested in Operation Lava-Jato, in 2018. Because the judge of the operation, Moro, was deemed partial, Lula was released, regained his political rights and was able to flee.
Bolsonaro, 67, has been the country’s president since 2018, after a long but almost anonymous career as a federal deputy. During his tenure, he saw his government rejection rise above 50% due to the criticized behavior of the pandemic and the economy.
According to most observers, the second round will now be contested by ballot, with a slight preference for Lula.
delay and queues
Long, longer-than-usual lines at polling stations slowed the count. On the other hand, the unification of the closing times of the polling stations (regardless of the three time zones, all states closed the polling stations at the same time), limited “exit polls”, which usually reveal a point of the national situation, closer to reality.
“By the time the Superior Electoral Court releases the first partial, the number of votes will already be far greater than any exit poll we could do and these kinds of polls are expensive,” said Márcia Cavallari, director of IPEC, one of the chief executives. polling stations, to the UOL portal.
The two top candidates voted at about the same time. Lula in São Bernardo do Campo, a city on the outskirts of São Paulo where he started his union career, and Bolsonaro in Vila Militar, in Rio de Janeiro, his political headquarters.
“Harmony” and “Data People”
The PT candidate, when asked about the possibility of protests after a victory, said that most Brazilians want harmony. “The majority of Brazilian society wants peace and tranquility, wants to work, produce and live well, but there will be some fanatics who will never want to adapt, as in all political parties and in all ideological tendencies,” he said. , alongside the vice-candidate, Geraldo Alckmin.
Lula kissed the ballot and recalled being unable to vote four years ago because he was imprisoned in Curitiba as part of Operation Car Wash. “I tried to have the urn go to jail, but they didn’t take it. Four years after being the victim of a lie, I vote here in full recognition of my freedom and the opportunity to run for president again .”
The PL candidate said that “if it is a clean election”, he would have “no problems” recognizing the winner, but, more important than the polls that gave the rival to the front, “it is Datapovo”, he continued. , referring to the rallies that made and used a pun on the name of the Datafolha Institute.
And while Tebet said during his vote in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, that “despite atypical elections, Brazilian democracy has been strengthened”, Ciro in Fortaleza, Ceará guaranteed that he will not participate again: “I intend to stop” .
An hour after polling stations closed, the Department of Justice and Public Security registered nearly 500 police incidents and 170 arrests for electoral crimes: 148 cases for illegal campaigning, 25 for vote-buying and 17 for attempts to violate the secrecy of the vote.
(text published at 1:20 am Lisbon time – 93% of polls counted in Brazil)
Source: DN
