{"id":226595,"date":"2026-10-05T10:05:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T10:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/polls-close-in-first-round-of-brazils-high-stakes-presidential-election-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T10:05:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T10:05:37","slug":"polls-close-in-first-round-of-brazils-high-stakes-presidential-election-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/polls-close-in-first-round-of-brazils-high-stakes-presidential-election-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Polls close in first round of Brazil\u2019s high-stakes presidential election – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leftwing incumbent Lula trying to fight off close rival Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro, far-right son of jailed ex-president
The polls have closed in the first round of Brazil\u2019s highly polarised and high-stakes presidential election that could change not only the direction of Latin America\u2019s largest country but that of the entire region.
The election pits the leftwing president, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, who is seeking a fourth non-consecutive term, against the far-right senator Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro, an ally of Donald Trump and the son of the former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup<\/a> after his failed 2022 re-election attempt.
Late on Sunday Bolsonaro was leading Lula in partial results. With results in from almost 65% of the country, Bolsonaro had 49.8% to Lula\u2019s 42.25%, while several other candidates stood in the single digits.
Lula and Bolsonaro have alternated as frontrunners in the final stretch, making the outcome unpredictable. In recent days both have focused on persuading undecided voters in hopes of reaching 50% plus one vote; if neither does, there will be a runoff on 25 October.
Brazil is one of the few Latin American countries that still has a leftwing government after a wave of rightwing and far-right electoral victories across the region and the US takeover of Venezuela<\/a> after the capture of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.
The 80-year-old Lula has positioned himself as one of the last regional leaders still willing to say no to Trump, and has recently accused the US president of trying to interfere<\/a> in Brazil\u2019s election in Bolsonaro\u2019s favour<\/a>.
Like his father, who was Brazil\u2019s president during Trump\u2019s first term, Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro, 45, frequently praises<\/a> the US president and has pledged to join the US-led anti-drug-cartel coalition that has killed dozens of people in airstrikes<\/a> and carried out military operations across the region.
Voting on Sunday morning in S\u00e3o Bernardo do Campo, the industrial city where his political career began<\/a> nearly half a century ago, Lula said: \u201cPeople will have to choose between strengthening democracy and barbarism.\u201d The incumbent played down polls released on Saturday that showed the race was wide open \u2013 they suggested either candidate could finish ahead and force a runoff, or even win outright on Sunday. \u201cThe poll that matters will be carried out today,\u201d he said.
Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro, who voted in Rio de Janeiro\u2019s north zone, urged supporters of other rightwing candidates to switch to him in a \u201cprotest vote\u201d. \u201cOur internal polls show people who would have voted for other candidates, who are also against Lula, already voting for Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro \u2026 I hope it\u2019s enough to give us victory in the first round,\u201d he said.
Claudinei Ferreira Viana, 45, a workshop manager in Pinhais in Paran\u00e1 state, is one of the senator\u2019s supporters. \u201cMy first choice would be Jair Bolsonaro but, since he is under house arrest<\/a> and there is no other rightwing candidate strong enough to take on the current president, I\u2019m going with Fl\u00e1vio,\u201d he said.
At the beginning of the year, polls suggested<\/a> Bolsonaro voters would have preferred a ticket led by the S\u00e3o Paulo governor, Tarc\u00edsio de Freitas, or the former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro. But the former president chose his eldest son.
The campaign was also marked by a scandal in which the senator was caught on tape<\/a> asking a banker accused of corruption for $26.8m (\u00a320m) to fund a film about his father<\/a>, as well as speculation that Bolsonaro might strip<\/a> the country\u2019s widely cherished patron saint of her status, but he has nevertheless remained highly competitive.
For many analysts, that reflects a combination of a straightforward transfer of his father\u2019s voter base \u2013 Jair Bolsonaro lost to Lula by less than two percentage points in 2022 \u2013 and an anti-Lula vote, with the president still facing high rejection rates<\/a> despite strong social and economic indicators<\/a>.
The incumbent\u2019s campaign has also been hit by corruption allegations \u2013 still under investigation \u2013 involving his son and a former aide, as well as a scandal involving supreme court justices<\/a>, which, despite having no connection to Lula, is seen as fuelling an \u201canti-system\u201d vote and by extension an anti-incumbent one.
Brazilians will also elect 27 state governors, members of state legislatures, all 513 federal congress members and 54 of the country\u2019s 81 senators in Sunday\u2019s vote.
AMC, 40, who asked to be identified only by her initials because she fears reprisals from the local conservative government where she works in the interior of Amazonas state, will vote for Lula on Sunday \u201cbecause of the many programmes he created to support the most vulnerable groups\u201d.
\u201cJair Bolsonaro weakened protections for Indigenous peoples, and everything Lula has done over the past four years to strengthen those protections and protect the Amazon<\/a> would be seriously threatened<\/a> if his son came to power,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leftwing incumbent Lula trying to fight off close rival Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro, far-right son of jailed ex-presidentThe polls have closed in the first round of Brazil\u2019s highly polarised and high-stakes presidential election that could change not only the direction of Latin America\u2019s largest country but that of the entire region.The election pits the leftwing president, Luiz […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":226596,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}