Polls closed on 21, Norwegian time, and the count now shows that Lula da Silva received 50.10 percent of the vote, against Bolsonaro’s 49.90.
The first votes counted were from the regions where Bolsonaro has the most support. But Lula steadily reduced his lead, and now took the lead.
Voting is mandatory in Brazil, and turnout appears to be around 80 percent.
Opposition candidate: Lula da Silva cast his vote in São Paulo, the largest city in Brazil.
Photo: Nelson Almeida/AFP
The police stopped the voters
The elections were marked by a stop of voters’ buses in several regions of the country on their way to the polling stations.
According to the main newspaper Folha de São Paulo, these buses have been stopped in more than 500 places.
This prompted Lula’s party leader, Gliese Hoffman, to demand the arrest of the traffic police chief.
Police Chief Silvini Vasquez urged his Instagram followers today to vote for Jair Bolsonaro in today’s election, but the post was later deleted.
After the president of the Brazilian Electoral Tribunal, Alexandre de Moraes, ordered Vásquez to remove the barriers, buses were allowed to continue.
Compulsory voting: Voting is compulsory for all people between the ages of 18 and 70, and queues were long in front of polling stations.
Photo: Eraldo Peres/AP
Dirty election campaign
In the first round of elections on October 2 Lula got the same number of votes pollsters expected: 48 percent. While Bolsonaro’s result was much better than expected: 43.5%.
But since no one could achieve the required 50 percent of the country’s vote, the match had to be replayed on October 30.
The weeks leading up to Sunday’s election were largely about talking to the opponent. Little has been said about how to concretely shape politics and bring Brazil out of the shadow of the pandemic.
Bolsonaro’s campaign was marked by slogans such as: “God, Fatherland, Family and Freedom,” and threats that Brazil would plunge into communism if Lula won.
While Lula promised to “take back Brazil” and “give the poor a better life”.
Brazil has never seen an election campaign with so much hostility and so much fake news. After each televised debate, newspapers had long lists of statements containing factual errors.
The words “lies” and “lies” have been used extensively – at election meetings, in television debates, and on social media.
Fear of riots
Jair Bolsonaro has said several times that he does not trust the country’s electoral system. During a demonstration marking the National Day last year, he said, “Only God will remove me from power.”
Divided supporters: A Bolsonaro supporter casts his vote in Sunday’s election.
Photo: Andre Penner/AP
If you don’t succeed The way Bolsonaro thus claims election fraud, some violent riots feared One of his most fanatical followers.
About the fate of the rainforest
Many believe that the rainforest wins if Bolsonaro loses.
“It gives us hope and gives hope to our allies in Brazil if Lula wins,” Anders Hogg Larsen of the Rain Forest Trust previously told NRK.
It is powered by one Carbon Brief Analysis. It shows that Lula’s victory could reduce deforestation by 89 percent by 2030.
Deforestation: a deforested area of a rainforest. The photo is from September.
Photo: DOUGLAS MAGNO / AFP
Under Bolsonaro’s leadership, deforestation has increased by as much as 75 percent, according to Regenskogovodet.
In the Carbon Brief analysis, the researchers considered their starting point that Lula is making good on his election promises to crack down on deforestation. When Lula was president from 2003 to 2011, his government managed to reduce deforestation by 70 percent.
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