Flávio Bolsonaro tops Brazil's first round; runoff is set
With 92% of precincts counted, the senator leads President Lula by about 3.5 points. Neither passes 50%, so Brazil decides on Oct. 25.
Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator for the Liberal Party (PL) and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, finished first in Brazil's presidential first round on Sunday, Oct. 4. He will face President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a runoff on Oct. 25: the law requires more than half of valid votes to win outright, and neither candidate reached it.
With 92% of precincts counted, Flávio has 47.78% (52,790,954 votes) and Lula, of the Workers' Party (PT), has 44.22% (47,941,161), according to El Mostrador, a Chilean outlet. An earlier count from The Rio Times, based on data from the Superior Electoral Court and with 89.6% counted, had 48.1% and 43.9%. The figures change with each count and remain partial.
The gap has been narrowing. With 64.81% of ballots counted, the senator had 49.58% and Lula 42.2%, according to C5N, an Argentine outlet. The southern states, which favor the right, report first; those of the northeast, Lula's stronghold, come later.
The result beats what the polls anticipated. Datafolha had Lula at 42% and Flávio at 38% in the first round on Oct. 1.
The other four candidates add up to less than 10%: Augusto Cury with 2.93%, Renan Santos with 2.30%, Ronaldo Caiado with 2.25% and Romeu Zema with 0.28%, according to The Rio Times, which also reports a turnout of 79.01%.
In the Senate, El Mostrador counts 16 of the 25 seats already decided for the PL and none for the PT. It is a single-source figure.
Brazil is the largest economy and the most populous country in Latin America, so the runoff pits the governing left against the Bolsonaro right for three weeks. The Superior Electoral Court's final result is still pending; the runoff is the only conclusion that will not change with the count.
