The election is closing, and the Lula-Bolsonaro fight will soon be decided

Former leftist leader Lula is the favorite against outgoing far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. Voting went smoothly.

Polls close at 10pm French time this Sunday as Brazilians flock to the polls for the election. Outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro Threatens to contest the result, and his opponent on the left, Lula, hopes to win the first round.

“If the elections are clean, there is no problem. Let the best win!”, the far-right head of state announced during the morning vote in Rio de Janeiro.

Angered by press questions, Bolsonaro, dressed in the yellow and green jersey of the national soccer team with a bulletproof vest underneath, declined to make clear whether he would recognize the outcome of the vote.

Discover the “quiet country”.

Former left-wing president (2003-2010) Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva casts his vote earlier in Sao Bernardo do Campo, a working-class suburb of Sao Paulo.

“For me, this is a very important election,” said the former steelworker, who is seeking a third term in his sixth presidential election, 12 years after leaving power with a stratospheric approval rating (87%).

“We don’t need hatred, contradictions any more. We want a peaceful country,” he said, referring to the fractures in highly polarized Brazil of 214 million people.

Queues stretched in front of polling stations in the late afternoon, with voters often dressed in Bolsonaro yellow and green or Lulist red and having to wait more than an hour to cast their ballots because of the crowds.

The referendum was held “without a hitch”.

In the afternoon, the head of the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), Alexandre de Moraes, promised that voting would take place “without problems” and wanted to “reaffirm the reliability and transparency” of the electronic ballot system. Jair Bolsonaro criticized

He later explained to reporters that “everyone who wants to vote before 5pm can do so” and that election day continued “absolutely peacefully”.

He added that we will count all the votes today. “All results will be announced in the presence of TSE ministers, the president, governors, senators and federal or state representatives,” which Brazilians will elect in Sunday’s general election.

The Datafolha reference institute gave Lula, 76, the leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) with 50% of the vote in the first round, against Bolsonaro’s 36% and 67 (Liberal Party).