Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, an ally of President Trump, and Brazil’s veteran president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will face off in a second round on October 25 to elect the top job in Latin America’s powerful economy. The country’s electoral court in Brasilia said that neither the 80-year-old incumbent, seeking his fourth non-consecutive term, nor the 45-year-old son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, would get more than 50% of the total vote is needed for an outright victory. The Brasilia electoral court had Bolsonaro with just over 55.8 million votes compared to Lula’s almost 53.2 million. Bolsonaro addressed the press and a small group of supporters, including some wearing green and yellow Brazilian T-shirts and a woman wrapped in the Israeli flag, outside his home in Brasilia. “Brazil wants a change, that is the reading of what happened today,” said Bolsonaro. “It is the end of the era of the Workers’ Party,” he added, referring to Lula’s party. Lula, seeking to be encouraging ahead of an uphill battle to beat Bolsonaro in the second round, said the result was “unexpected” as he had thought he could win in the first round. “Tomorrow we will start a new campaign,” Lula said. “I’m very good at the round of 16. We’ll see who has the best plan.” Trump’s allies have done well in recent elections in Latin America, including Argentina, Colombia, Honduras and Peru. Lula has accused the US administration of trying to influence his country’s election against Bolsonaro by imposing tariffs, revoking the visa of the country’s ambassador in Washington and imposing sanctions on government officials and a Supreme Court judge. The Trump administration did not respond to a request for comment on whether it seeks to interfere in the vote. The next presidential term begins on January 5, 2027. The winner will be in charge of Latin America’s largest economy and a population of 214 million. A victory for Bolsonaro would increase the influence of the United States in Latin America. If Lula wins, Brazil will maintain its distance from Washington and continue to deepen its relationship with China. Lula faces a tough battle. Both Lula and Bolsonaro will have three weeks to reach moderate voters who did not support them in the first round. Ronaldo Caiado and Renan Santos, two candidates who found moderate support in Sunday’s election, have previously said they will not back any of the bidders in the runoff. With another 21 days of campaigning ahead, Lula is expected to try to capitalize on the popularity of his social policies and his rival’s numerous legal problems. While the once hugely popular Lula saw his approval ratings drop during his third term, taking on the United States gave him a boost. And he still enjoys a strong base of supporters who credit his social policies with improving the lives of millions of Brazilians. But the current president faces an uphill battle due to an affordability crisis and a corruption scandal that ensnared the same judge who led the investigation into Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro is likely to lean into his message on affordability and link the president to corruption scandals. He vowed to crack down on Brazilian criminal groups and insisted that Brazil needs to strike better deals with the Trump administration, including in the rare minerals economy, second only to China. Bolsonaro has also campaigned to free his father and bring him back to politics. “Brazil needs a change. Brazil cannot endure so much suffering,” he told reporters at the Rio de Janeiro voting center, where he cast his vote on Sunday. Both candidates face image problems: About half of Brazil’s population disapproves of the Bolsonaro family, and about half disapproves of Lula’s Workers’ Party, according to multiple polls. Four years ago, Lula defeated then-president Jair Bolsonaro by around 2.1 million votes. Voters choose between being an incumbent or returning to the right. “I feel calm but very sad with the result,” said Álvaro Senra, 65, a history teacher and Lula supporter in Rio de Janeiro, who watched the count with friends in a bar. “I think this is a result of conservatives working under the radar, including neo-Pentecostal churches. But I think Lula can still win.” Earlier in the day, Maria Ribeiro, a 50-year-old cellphone saleswoman from Brasilia, said she voted for Bolsonaro’s eldest son because she wants freedom to express her evangelical religion. He hopes he will follow in his father’s footsteps. “I voted for his father and I don’t regret it,” he said. The proximity to her father was what worried Lorena Zschaber, a 40-year-old photographer, who saw the results arrive in an LGBTQ+ bar in the center of Rio de Janeiro. During her father’s presidency, “people felt more comfortable discriminating,” she said. “I am an LGBTQ+ woman, I can’t think of anything worse than the election of Flávio Bolsonaro,” she added. Rosângela Resende da Rocha, a 69-year-old woman who was previously a housewife, said she supported Lula’s social policies that help the “less fortunate” and how he stands up to Trump. “That crazy man wants to come here to buy our country, so that our country is like there,” he said at a voting center in Brasilia. “It will not be successful if Lula wins.” Confidence in Brazil’s electronic voting system No significant fraud has ever been detected since Brazil adopted its electronic voting system in the 1990s. The Organization of American States’ electoral observation mission reported Sunday that “the vote has taken place without problems and under adequate security conditions.” The electoral authorities have assured that electronic votes are secure and verifiable. “We are almost three hours away from the end of the vote and everything is developing normally and with the greatest possible transparency,” said the president of the Superior Electoral Court, Kassio Nunes Marques, on Sunday afternoon, adding that “there are no concrete indications of international interference.” Janeiro, said the rapid availability of results helped combat fraud and uncertainty. “When results take a long time, it creates an opportunity for people to question the results, to say there’s been a problem,” he said. More from CBS News Go deeper with The Free Press in:
