Brazilians living in Portugal and voting in Lisbon flocked to the polls in the early morning hours and formed a long line at Cidade Universitária, hoping to avoid a second round of the presidential election.
By the time polls opened at 8am at the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Law, there was already a long queue at the door, with the first people arriving at 5am, police said Lusa from Public Security outside the college. .
For Marcelo Resende, who voted for the first time in Portugal, the large turnout of Brazilians at the polls in Lisbon was “a surprise”.
“The line here is long, but it doesn’t stop, it’s always moving,” the young man told Lusa, who voted “to change Brazil’s course”.
“May democracy be made, may we change Brazil’s course, may things get better. […] I believe this current president [Jair Bolsonaro] didn’t do what needed to be done for the Brazilian people, I think the change is best for us to see how things go or not,” defended Marcelo Resende after leaving university after the vote.
As for a possible second round of the election, Marcelo Resende said he believes it will happen “unfortunately”. “People are well distributed, so I think there will be a second round,” he emphasized.
Eduardo, who wore a t-shirt in support of Bolsonaro, hopes the country “will not go back to what it had before”.
“The party that was before was a lot of corruption, a lot of things they discovered, so I think it’s better to keep what’s there, for now,” he told Lusa.
Eduardo, who also voted for the first time in Portugal, said he was “amazed” at the number of Brazilians who went to the polls in the morning and therefore believes “there will not be a second round”.
Caio Arruda, another young Brazilian who voted for the first time in Lisbon, said the change of president is “without a doubt” the best for Brazil.
“Fortunately, we have a lot of hope to start a new cycle in the country and put all this mess behind us and, really, come back to believe in our country and that from now on we can have more hope for a better Brazil.” said Caio Arruda, who was accompanied by a young woman wearing a red T-shirt that read “Lula livre”.
Caio Arruda also stressed the speed at which the voting process is taking place, as it took “just an hour” despite the long queue, and said he hoped there would be no second round.
“If so, I’ll be there too, but I’m hopeful that everything will be resolved in the first round,” he said.
11 candidates are running for the Brazilian presidential election: Jair Bolsonaro, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Ciro Gomes, Simone Tebet, Luís Felipe D’Ávila, Soraya Tronicke, Eymael, Father Kelmon, Leonardo Pericles, Sofia Manzano and Vera Lúcia.
If none of the candidates achieve a 50% majority plus one vote on October 2, the runoff with the two most votes will take place on the 30th.
Consul in Lisbon expects “expressive” participation in the vote
Brazil’s consul general in Lisbon said on Sunday that the influx of Brazilians to the polls in the early hours leads to expectations that the participation of Brazilians living in Portugal in the Brazilian presidential election will be “expressive”.
“The influx of people is quite intense, which leads us to assume that the attendance will be quite large and expressive,” journalists Wladimir Waller told the Faculty of Law about two hours after polling stations opened at 8 a.m. the University of Lisbon.
Brazil’s representative said the voting process is “very good, with a lot of normality” and fast, with voters taking about five minutes to vote.
However, two of the 58 electronic voting machines standing in Lisbon had “problems and had to be replaced with a canvas ballot box”, in a process coordinated with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which was to approve the replacement.
The issue, which has now been resolved, caused a slight delay in opening two polling stations, the consul explained.
Wladimir Waller expressed satisfaction with the way the polls are taking place and left public recognition to his team for making the transition from 21,000 voters in Lisbon to more than 45,000 smooth.
“It is a pleasure to see that the Brazilian staying here has delivered his electoral card, made the transfer, has the documentation up to date, all this is very positive, we must only praise what we see,” stressed the consul.
Source: DN
