Sylvie Claire / October 3, 2022
Former leftist President Lula came out on top in the 1st round of Brazil's presidential election on Sunday, ahead of far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro.
However, his advance is less important than the polls predicted and a second round will take place between the two men on October 30 since Lula could not obtain the absolute majority of the votes.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, icon of the Brazilian left, won 47.97% of the votes, ahead of the far-right incumbent president, at 43.60%, announced in the evening the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), based on the counting of 97.69% of the polling stations.
This short victory is disappointing for Lula, to whom the polls promised a large lead, even a triumph in the first round, which he wanted to celebrate on the great Paulista Avenue in Sao Paulo.
He will have to face his sworn enemy in a second round, scheduled by electoral law for October 30.
The president Jair Bolsonaro has resisted better than expected while the polls said he was trailing far behind Lula in the voting intentions (36% against 50%).
For the populist leader, who escaped a humiliating defeat in the first round, these four weeks may be an opportunity to galvanize his troops in the streets and find new momentum.
The question is whether Bolsonaro will accept a possible electoral defeat in the second round. The right-wing populist president's previous statements suggest he will not. "If we have a clean election, then I will win today with at least 60 percent of the vote," he said Sunday, for example, after voting in the first round. He has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that the Brazilian electoral system is prone to fraud and that he does not trust the results.
In addition, many bolsonist candidates, including former government ministers, were elected to Congress and as governors.
The election, to which 156 million voters were called, apparently went off without violence in Latin America's largest country.