Rio de Janeiro, Oct 5. (dpa/GNA) – Brazilians were voting for a new president on Sunday, with leftist incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, locked in a tight race in the deeply polarized country.
Some 159 million people are eligible to cast ballots in Latin America’s largest country. Polling stations are due to close at 5 pm (2000 GMT), with the first provisional results expected later on Sunday. Neither frontrunner is expected to secure the absolute majority needed to win outright in the first round, making a run-off between the two on October 25 likely.
Lula, 80, is seeking a fourth term as president, while Bolsonaro is running for the country’s top office for the first time.
“I am more than ready to lead this country and restore to Brazilian families, the right to dream again,” Bolsonaro said after casting his ballot at a polling site in Rio de Janeiro.
The campaign has focused heavily on crime, as well as the role of the state, the independence of the Supreme Court and relations with US President Donald Trump.
Bolsonaro, of the right-wing Liberal Party (PL), is campaigning on reducing state services and taking a tougher approach to crime.
Lula, of the left-wing Workers’ Party (PT), is seeking to continue his government’s social programmes and public investment while maintaining a strong role for the state.
Lula returned to the presidency in 2023, after previously serving from 2003 to 2010. Flávio Bolsonaro has served as a senator since 2019.
His father narrowly lost the 2022 presidential election to Lula, and was later sentenced by the Supreme Court to more than 27 years in prison for an attempted coup, following his election defeat. Jair Bolsonaro is currently serving his sentence under house arrest due to health problems.
Twelve candidates are running for president. Alongside Lula and Bolsonaro, they include governors Ronaldo Caiado and Romeu Zema, as well as psychiatrist and author Augusto Cury.
The other candidates are polling well behind the two frontrunners. Alongside the president and vice president, Brazilians are electing two-thirds of the 81-member Senate and all 513 members of the Chamber of Deputies. Voters are also choosing governors in the country’s 26 states and the Federal District, as well as members of state legislatures.
Voting is compulsory in Brazil.
GNA