Polling stations in Brazil were closed on Sunday evening, which is holding its breath, waiting to know the identity of the winner of the presidency between the outgoing president, Jair Bolsonaro, and the former left-wing president, Lula da Silva, who is the leader.
The president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Alexandre de Moraes, had ordered the removal of all roadblocks set up by the Federal Traffic Police, which “delayed the arrival of voters” at the polling stations, in what the left called a scandal.
Lula Workers’ Party officials had posted several videos on social media showing buses carrying parked voters, especially in rural areas in the north-east of the country, where the former president is stronghold (2003-2010), describing what is happening. as “unacceptable”.
But Morias stressed in a press conference that, despite the delay, “no buses came back and all the voters were able to vote.”
And each of the candidates expressed confidence in victory when they voted on Sunday in the second round of the presidential election, which has been called up for 152 million voters and which is witnessing intense competition.
“We will win tonight,” the far-right president said shortly after the offices opened at 8:00 (11:00 GMT) in Rio de Janeiro.
“Brazil will win tonight,” added Bolsonaro, wearing a yellow-green jersey in the colors of the national flag.
Then he went to Rio de Janeiro airport, where he received the Flamengo football team, which on Saturday won the “Copa Libertadores” in Ecuador, which is equivalent to the European Cup.
Bolsonaro got in with the players, raising the cup, and some of them drew the number 22 with their finger, which voters must enter in the electronic ballot boxes to vote for the outgoing president.
And Bolsonaro had already garnered the support of soccer star Neymar, which sparked widespread controversy.
He will then travel to the capital, Brasilia, where he should await the results of the polls at the Alvorada Palace.
In turn, the icon of the left voted for Lula the leader in the morning in an office near Sao Paulo, underlining his “confidence (…) in the victory of democracy”.
Lula expressed the hope that these elections “will restore peace among the Brazilians”.
Brazil is divided in a highly polarized atmosphere punctuated by huge amounts of misinformation on social media, as the two candidates have exchanged insults in front of tens of millions of viewers.
In a country that admits suffrage from the age of 16 and where voting is mandatory from the age of 18 and under penalty of a symbolic fine, Gabriel Valeriano, who has just turned 16, said: “Being young and voting is very important” and the reason it is “we are the future of a nation”.
In the same polling station in Brasilia, Carolina Tavares, 37, considered it “important to vote in these special elections”.
The polls predicted a victory for Lula, 77, who had already ruled for two terms between 2003 and 2010, but Bolsonaro, 67, holds some hope after the unexpected result obtained in the first round of the elections on 2 October, with 43% of the vote against 48% for his opponent.
Bolsonaro, who according to polls is more than 10 percentage points behind his rival, benefited from a favorable momentum in the intersession phase.
The results of the latest opinion poll prepared by the Datafolia Institute, published on Saturday evening, strengthen Bolsonaro’s hopes, with the difference that it shrinks, and he expected Lula to win by receiving 52 percent of the vote, against 48 percent. of the outgoing president. The margin of error is 2 percent, while opinion polls previously had erred in their forecasts.
“The battle is much more intense than everyone expected,” said Brian Winter, editor-in-chief of America’s Quarterly. “It will be an election with a lot of uncertainty.”
The main question is: if Lula wins the election, will Bolsonaro accept the result on Sunday evening?
“Bolsonaro will appeal against the result,” said Rogerio Doltra dos Santos of the Federal University of Fluminense.
If elected, Lula will be the central political figure in Brazilian politics for four decades, making a notable comeback after being jailed between 2018 and 2019 until his corruption conviction was overturned.
The new president will have to deal with a more right-wing parliament after the legislative elections on October 2, with Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party strongly represented.
