Bolsonaro, Lula Are Headed for a Runoff After Sunday’s Presidential Election

The former president had 47.34% of valid votes and a lead of 3.5 million votes with 92% of the polls counted, while the current president had 44.13%.

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Bloomberg Línea — Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva could not get the necessary votes to win in the first round of Brazil’s presidential election against incumbent candidate Jair Bolsonaro. With these, the current president and the ex-president will face in a runoff on October 30.

With more than 92% of the polls counted, Lula had 47.34% of the valid votes (more than 51,530 million votes), while Bolsonaro had 44.13% (more than 48 million votes). To win in a first round, Brazilian electoral law requires a candidate to receive 50% of valid votes.

Lula, running over a left-wing platform, got the biggest amount of the votes, but fell short of the win that many opinion polls had suggested he would get.

The tally leaves Lula without the simple majority needed for victory in the first round and sets him and Bolsonaro up for a bruising face-off in what has already been a divisive election campaign.

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--With information from Bloomberg News