Brazil: Top two presidential candidates headed for runoff

• Author: Israel National News
• Published date: 03 October 2022
• Publication title: Israel National News (Israel)

The race pits incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro against his political nemesis, leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. There are nine other candidates, but their support pales to that for Bolsonaro and da Silva

With 91.6% of votes counted on Sunday night, da Silva had 47.3%, ahead of Bolsonaro with 44.2%, according to the electoral authority.

It appears increasingly likely neither of the top two candidates will receive more than 50% of the votes, as required by Brazilian law to win in the first round. The second round of voting will be scheduled for October 30.

Recent opinion polls had given da Silva a commanding lead - the last Datafolha survey published Saturday found a 50% to 36% advantage for da Silva among those who intended to vote. It interviewed 12,800 people, with a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

The election wound up being far tighter than anticipated, both in the presidential contest and those for governorships and congressional seats.

Bolsonaro outperformed in Brazil's southeast region, which includes populous Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais states.

Bolsonaro, who has been dubbed the "Trump of Brazil", has come under fire for his incendiary...