Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Brazilian voters went to the polls Sunday to choose between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro in a runoff.
A total of 158,745,502 people were eligible to vote. The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) initially set polling to close at 5 p.m. Brasília time. Complaints about reduced public transport later prompted a nationwide, two-hour extension.
At 20:35 local time, the TSE’s results page showed 298,392 of 499,248 voting sections totalized—59.77%. Those sections recorded 76,083,037 voters and 17,878,184 abstentions (19.03%). Of the 73,730,035 valid votes counted, Flávio Bolsonaro was 766,013 votes behind Lula: 36,482,011 (49.48%) to 37,248,024 (50.52%).
Lula led by 766,013 votes, or 1.04 percentage points, with 40.23% of sections still uncounted. The PT has historically drawn strong support from Brazil’s interior, particularly the Northeast: Lula won 1,774 of the region’s 1,794 municipalities in 2022, and research tracking municipal results across successive elections traces the party’s growing strength there. The remaining count will show whether that regional support widens Lula’s lead.
First-round results put abstention in focus
The TSE’s first-round tally gave Flávio 47.03% of valid votes and Lula 45.16% on October 4. Neither received more than 50% of valid votes, requiring a runoff.
More than 33.4 million voters stayed home, and abstention reached 21.08%, the highest rate in a first round of general elections since 1998. Both campaigns focused on mobilizing abstainers for the runoff.
Lula casts his ballot
Lula voted at about 10 a.m. Brasília time at a school in São Bernardo do Campo, near São Paulo. A Telesur report on his vote said he was accompanied by Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and left-wing leaders Marina Silva, Simone Tebet, and Fernando Haddad. After voting, Lula called Flávio a “liar” and said he did not believe voters would choose a candidate who, in his words, “is not capable of telling the truth.”
As voting concluded in parts of Asia and Oceania, Telesur reported Lula winning in five of the nine countries in the region, while Flávio carried the other four. Lula won in Australia, mainland China, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea. In Australia, he received 6,017 votes and Bolsonaro’s 3,465.
Transport complaints prompt an extension
During the day, Lula and his campaign denounced reduced bus service in several cities that was limiting voters’ access to polling stations. In its report on the campaign’s transport complaint, Agência Brasil said Lula accused the mayors of São Paulo, Salvador, and Feira de Santana of deliberately obstructing voting. He said he would seek their arrest after the election over alleged electoral crimes and urged voters not to give up on casting their ballots.
In Salvador, the Bahia regional electoral court reported that fewer than half of the buses scheduled for weekday service were operating. The city government said buses had been held in garages while stickers bearing the PT’s name were removed.
Lula’s coalition asked the TSE to extend voting in affected municipalities, Últimas Noticias reported. The Supreme Federal Court ruling reported by Agência Brasil had Justice Cristiano Zanin order polling stations nationwide to receive votes until 7 p.m. Brasília time. The TSE paused the totalization of ballots from sections that had already closed while it implemented the ruling.
US meddling
Trump’s support for the Bolsonaro camp was publicly visible in his White House meeting with Flávio. Brasil de Fato reported that Flávio made six trips to the United States during the election year. Three US senators accused the Trump administration of using diplomatic and economic pressure to destabilize Brazil, citing the meeting. Lula sought a direct conversation with Trump to demand noninterference, as Telesur reported; Brazil’s intelligence agency also warned of possible US intervention, Telesur reported separately.
Investigative reporting has documented links between the Bolsonaro family and Argentine political consultant Fernando Cerimedo. Agência Pública reported that Eduardo Bolsonaro’s congressional campaign hired a Cerimedo employee, and that Cerimedo later spread false claims about Brazil’s electronic voting system after Jair Bolsonaro lost in 2022. A Brasil de Fato mapping of foreign interests backing Flávio traces a wider network of people, organizations, companies, and governments linked to the Bolsonaro family. Together, the reporting places Cerimedo’s documented work on Bolsonaro electoral operations alongside a broader US-linked far-right network backing Flávio.
Fernando Cerimedo is an Argentinian far-right political operative and co-founder of La Derecha Diario who advised Jair Bolsonaro and Javier Milei before advising Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz, according to La Jornada’s reporting on his political work. His US political ties include former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale; Cerimedo was also photographed with Parscale and Donald Trump Jr., Orinoco Tribune reported.
Nadia Beller declared that Cerimedo told her he was a CIA agent, and former Bolivian President Evo Morales has also called him a CIA operative, as OT reported. Cerimedo remains in pretrial detention in Bolivia, facing attempted-femicide charges after Beller, who was pregnant at the time, survived a shooting she accuses him of organizing.
Lula also denounced US social media corporations for intervening in the election through their control of digital platforms. Orinoco Tribune reported that Meta restricted more than 1,080 pro-Lula and pro-PT accounts while boosting Flávio’s accounts. The TSE ordered Meta and X to explain possible unequal treatment of candidates, including the distribution of political content, use of artificial intelligence, and election advertising.
The political backing, pressure campaign, and corporate control of digital platforms shows US imperialist power inserting itself in order to intervene in a Brazilian election over the country’s sovereign direction.
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
OT/JRE/CD
From Orinoco Tribune via This RSS Feed.