Brazil’s Elections Go to 2nd Round: Numbers and Results

Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won the general elections that took place this Sunday, October 2, in Brazil, but the numbers did not give him enough to win in the first round. In total, he received 48.43% of the votes and will face the current president, Jair Bolsonaro—who received 43.2% of the votes, much more than the polls predicted—in a runoff election on October 30.

The votes of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), led by Simone Tebet, who came in third position (4.16%), and of Lula’s former minister, Ciro Gomes (3.04%), fourth place, will be decisive in defining who will be the next president of Brazil. It is expected to be a close election.

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Beyond Lula’s victory in the first round, it was shown that Bolsonarism will be very much alive in Congress and the Senate, and will be strongly opposed if the Workers’ Party (PT) wins on October 30.

Other results:

513 deputies were also elected, a third of the senators, governors and hundreds of state and Federal District deputies.
In the three most populous states, Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, candidates for governors allied with Bolsonaro won.
President Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party (PL) obtained the most seats in Congress, according to an estimate based on figures from the Superior Electoral Court.
Jair Bolsonaro’s PL won at least 23 deputies in the elections this Sunday, reaching 99 and becoming the greatest number of seats that have been elected to the Chamber in the last 24 years. In 2018, the PL had obtained 33 federal deputies, that is, less than half of the current bench.
The PT also increased its number of seats, from 56 to 76.
Bolsonaro won nine governorships and Lula won six in the first round. There are still 12 states left, who will choose their governor in the second round.
In this first round, three PT candidates emerged as winners: Fátima Bezerra in Rio Grande do Norte, Elmano de Freitas in Ceará and Rafael Fonteles in Piauí. In addition, three others from parties allied to Lula were also victorious: Clécio Nunes (SD) in Amapá, Carlos Brandão (PSB) in Maranhão and Helder Barbalho (MDB) in Pará.
The nine Bolsonaro-aligned governors elected are: Ratinho (PSD) in Paraná, Mauro Mendes (Union) who was re-elected with a wide lead in Mato Grosso, Gladson Cameli (PP), who also managed to be re-elected in Acre, Ibaneis Rocha (MDB) in the Federal District, Ronaldo Caiado (UB) in Goiás, Romeu Zema (Novo) in Minas Gerais, and Antonio Denarium (PP), who was re-elected in Roraima. Bolsonaro also has elected allies in Rio de Janeiro, with Cláudio Castro (PL), and Tocantins, represented by Wanderley Barbosa (Republicans).

(Misión Verdad)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/KW/SL