Lula and Bolsonaro to face off in a runoff in Brazil’s presidential election on Oct. 30

Oct. 3 () –

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro will face each other in a second round of the presidential elections, as none of the candidates has exceeded 50 percent of the votes in this first round held this Sunday in Brazil.

With 97.07 percent of the votes counted, Lula da Silva, leader of the Workers’ Party, has emerged as the winner of the first round, winning 47.88 percent of the ballots–more than 54.8 million votes–.

Meanwhile, the current outgoing president and leader of the Liberal Party, Bolsonaro, has obtained 43.68 percent –more than 49.7 million voters–, according to data released by the Supreme Electoral Court.

The difference between the two main candidates is reduced to just over four percentage points, as indicated by the count of practically all the ballot boxes.

After the also former president of the country had been behind Bolsonaro for half of the count, Lula has managed to overtake his rival. Despite this, both have remained close to the 50 percent needed to avoid the second round.

Pre-election polls placed Lula well ahead of his opponent, as they even predicted that he would win the presidency in the first round.

Simone Tebet, in third place, obtained 4.22 percent of the votes. Ciro Gomes, in fourth place, obtained 3.06 percent.

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