<\/p>\n
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) \u2014 Sen. Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, and Brazil\u2019s incumbent President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva will face off in a runoff Oct. 25 for the top job of Latin America\u2019s powerhouse economy after neither won a majority in Sunday’s vote.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s electoral court in Brasilia said neither the 80-year-old incumbent, seeking his fourth non-consecutive term, nor the 45-year-old son of former President Jair Bolsonaro would garner the majority vote needed for an outright win.<\/p>\n
The court had Bolsonaro with just over 56 million votes to Lula\u2019s 53.7 million, with 99.8 percent of the vote reported. The next presidential term is set to begin Jan. 5.<\/p>\n
The winner will be in charge of Latin America\u2019s biggest economy and a population of 214 million. A win for Bolsonaro would increase U.S. influence in Latin America. If Lula wins, Brazil will keep its distance from Washington and continue to deepen its relationship with China.<\/p>\n
Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro addressed the press and a small group of supporters, including some wearing green and yellow Brazil jerseys and one woman wrapped in the Israeli flag, outside his Brasilia house.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrazil wants change, that\u2019s the reading of what happened today,\u201d Bolsonaro said. \u201cIt\u2019s the end of the Workers\u2019 Party era,\u201d he added, in a reference to Lula’s party.<\/p>\n
Lula, seeking to be encouraging ahead of an uphill battle to beat Bolsonaro in the runoff, said the result was \u201cunexpected\u201d as he had thought he could win in the first round.<\/p>\n
\u201cTomorrow we start a new campaign,\u201d Lula said. \u201cI am very good in the knockout stage. We will see who has the best plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Lula and Bolsonaro will have three weeks to reach moderate voters who did not support them in the first round. Augusto Cury, a writer who finished in third place with 3.4 million votes, said he would not endorse either in the runoff. Ronaldo Caiado and Renan Santos, two candidates who garnered about 5.3 million votes combined Sunday, have previously said the same.<\/p>\n
In the campaign ahead, Lula is expected to try to capitalize on the popularity of his social policies and his rival\u2019s many legal woes.<\/p>\n
While the once widely popular Lula saw his approval ratings plummet during his third term, standing up to the U.S. gave him a boost. And he still enjoys a strong base of supporters who credit his social policies for improving millions of Brazilians\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n
But the incumbent faces a tough battle because of an affordability crisis and a corruption scandal that ensnared the same justice who led the investigation into Bolsonaro.<\/p>\n
Bolsonaro will likely lean into his messaging on affordability and link the president to corruption scandals.<\/p>\n
He has promised to crack down on Brazilian criminal groups and insisted that Brazil needs to strike better deals with the Trump administration, including in the rare minerals economy, second only to China. Bolsonaro also has campaigned on releasing his father and bringing him back to politics.<\/p>\n
Both candidates face image problems: Roughly half of Brazil\u2019s population disapproves of the Bolsonaro family, and roughly half disapprove of Lula\u2019s Workers’ Party, according to multiple polls.<\/p>\n
Four years ago, Lula beat then incumbent Jair Bolsonaro by about 2.1 million votes.<\/p>\n
While it was a successful night for Bolsonaro, nothing is won yet, said Mayra Goulart, a political scientist from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Lula should \u201clook at the votes for Augusto Cury and Ronaldo Caiado and try to reduce abstention,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Reacting to the result, Alvaro Senra, 65, a history professor and Lula supporter in Rio de Janeiro said he felt \u201ccalm but very sad.\u201d He watched the count with friends at a bar.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is the result of conservatives working under the radar, including by neo-Pentecostal churches. But I think Lula can still win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, Maria Ribeiro, a 50-year-old cellphone vendor from Brasilia, said she voted for Bolsonaro\u2019s eldest son because she wants freedom to express her evangelical religion. She hopes he follows in his father\u2019s footsteps.<\/p>\n
\u201cI voted for his father, and I don\u2019t regret it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The proximity to his father was what worried Lorena Zschaber, a 40-year-old photographer, who watched the results roll in at an LGBTQ+-friendly bar in downtown Rio de Janeiro. During his father\u2019s presidency, \u201cpeople felt more at ease to discriminate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m an LGBTQ+ woman, I can\u2019t think of anything worse happening than Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro being elected,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Ros\u00e2ngela Resende da Rocha, a 69-year-old who was previously a stay-at-home mom, said she supported Lula\u2019s social policies that help the \u201cless fortunate\u201d and how he stands up to Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat crazy guy wants to come in here to buy our country, so that our country will be like it is over there,\u201d she said at a voting center in Brasilia. \u201cHe won\u2019t succeed if Lula wins.\u201d<\/p>\n
No significant fraud has ever been detected since Brazil adopted its electronic voting system in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
The Organization of American States\u2019 electoral observation mission reported Sunday that \u201cthe voting has been going smoothly and under adequate safety conditions.\u201d Electoral authorities assured that electronic votes are secure and verifiable.<\/p>\n
Voters appeared largely confident that the country\u2019s voting system can\u2019t be tampered with.<\/p>\n
Josemar Lauriano Pereira, a 46-year-old lawyer in Rio de Janeiro, said that the rapid availability of results helped combat fraud and uncertainty.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen results take a lot of time, it creates an opening for people to cast doubt on the results, to say there\u2019s been a problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) \u2014 Sen. Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, and Brazil\u2019s incumbent President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva will face off in a runoff Oct. 25 for the top job of Latin America\u2019s powerhouse economy after neither won a majority in Sunday’s vote. The country\u2019s electoral court in Brasilia said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[10862,10101,1373,682,1832,7456],"class_list":["post-32610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jesus","tag-bolsonaro","tag-brazils","tag-election","tag-lula","tag-presidential","tag-runoff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}