Polling stations close in Brazil after ballot between Lula and Bolsonaro

Los voting centers closed on Sunday Brazil after the second round to choose the next president, a highly polarized contest between the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro and the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The polling stations closed at 5:00 p.m. local time, although those who were in line at the time of closing will still be able to vote, according to the authorities. The results of the vote, which is electronic, will be known in the next few hours.

The latest survey of the Institute Datasheet predicted a narrow result, with 52% of the voting intentions for the former president Lula vs. 48% for president Bolsonaro.

In the first round, the polls underestimated the potential of Bolsonarowhich finally finished behind only by five points (43%-48%).

The 67-year-old president has sent mixed messages about whether he will recognize the results in the event of defeat. On Friday he assured that he will do it: “Whoever has the most votes, he wins.”

He was confident of his victory before voting in Rio de Janeiro: “The expectation is victory,” said Bolsonaro, dressed in a yellow Brazil shirt.

He took the opportunity to be photographed later at the Rio airport with Flamengo, brand new champion of the Copa Libertadores, with 40 million fans. Players like Rodinei and Fabrício Bruno posed next to the president lifting the trophy.

Casting his vote on the outskirts of São Paulo, Lula77 years old and dressed in white, was convinced that “the Brazilian people will vote for a project in which democracy will win.”

The exmandatario anticipated a great act at night in the emblematic Paulista avenue of Sao Paulo, where his supporters already met after the first round.

Controversy over transport chaos

The tense campaign has accentuated the polarization in the country, although some, like the couple formed by Elisete Silveira, 46, and her husband Alex, a 50-year-old military man, have managed to stay in harmony.

In Brasiliawent out to vote hand in hand, he wearing the yellow jersey of the national team in support of Bolsonaro and she dressed in red to Lula. “We agreed not to talk about politics at home to preserve love,” she, a dance teacher, explained.

“For us, Lula’s return is very important, he tried to demarcate our lands, he had projects,” said shaman Saha da Silva, from the Sateré-Mawé indigenous group, who voted in his community of Iranduba, 80 km from Manaus, capital of the Amazon.

The day was marked by a controversy over the traffic chaos in the northeast caused by road police controls, which had been prohibited by the electoral justice system to facilitate voting.

This delayed “the arrival of voters” at the voting centers in this territory that votes mostly for Lula, although “in no case did it prevent them from arriving” to vote, said the president of the Superior Electoral Court, Alexandre de Moraes.

“Fix” the country

Bolsonaro, a former army captain, is seeking re-election by defending traditional values ​​and the recent improvement in economic data – slowing inflation and falling unemployment – while continuing to breathe a nationalist rhetoric.

“Brazil above everything, God above all!”, he reiterated in his campaign speeches.

A message especially appreciated by agribusiness and the evangelical population, which represents a third of the electorate and continues to expand throughout the country.

For his part, Lula, who governed Brazil from 2003 to 2010, promises to “fix the country” still impacted by the pandemic crisis and its 688,000 deaths.

In his campaign, he highlighted his socioeconomic achievements, such as the escape from poverty of more than 30 million Brazilians thanks to social initiatives financed with the “boom” of raw materials.

He has the support of the most vulnerable and of those who resented the far-right’s policies and outbursts, such as young people, women and minorities.

“Very strong” conservatism

The campaign for the ballot was even more abundant in misinformation, insults and low blows.

Lula associated Bolsonaro with “pedophilia” and “cannibalism”, while the far-right accused him of being “drunk” and a “traitor of the country”.

“A not inconsiderable part will vote (for Lula) for rejecting Bolsonaro. The same thing happens on the other side,” Lara Mesquita, a professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo, told AFP.

Although there are few undecided, “in such a tight dispute they can be definitive,” he said.

The next president of Brazil will assume the reins on January 1.

If Lula wins, “it will be a weak government,” Brian Winter, editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly, told AFP. “In Brazil, a very strong conservative movement has resurfaced” that identifies with Bolsonaro.

This will intensify “the war of values” in an eventual second term of the president, which will be a “time of the chainsaw” for the Amazon, where deforestation skyrocketed during the current administration, he added.

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