Presidential in Brazil: polling stations close, the Lula-Bolsonaro duel soon to be decided – BFMTV

Former left-wing president Lula is the favorite against outgoing far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. Voting went smoothly. Polling stations now closed at 10 p.m. French time on Sunday as Brazilians thronged polling stations on Sunday for an election that incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro threatens to contest. the result, and that his opponent on the left Lula hopes to win in the first round. in Rio de Janeiro. Annoyed by the insistent questions from the press, Bolsonaro, dressed in the yellow and green jersey of the national football team under which he wore a bulletproof vest, did not want to say clearly whether he would recognize the result of the ballot.Finding a “country at peace”The former left-wing president (2003-2010) Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, voted shortly before in Sao Bernardo do Campo, a working-class suburb of Sao Paulo.”For me, this is the most important election,” said the former steelworker, who is in his sixth presidential race to run for a third term, 12 years after leaving power with a stratospheric popularity rate (87%). “We don’t want any more hatred, discord. We want a country at peace,” he said, referring to the fractures of a highly polarized Brazil, which has 214 million inhabitants. midday, voters often dressed in Bolsonarist yellow and green or Lulist red sometimes having to wait more than an hour to vote because of the crowds. President of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Alexandre de Moraes, assured that the vote took place “without problem”, and wanted to “reaffirm the reliability and transparency” of the electronic ballot box system, many times criticized by Jair Bolsonaro He then explained to the press that “anyone who would like to vote before 5 p.m. could do so” and that the election day continued “in an absolutely quiet way”. “We are going to count all the votes today”, he said. he added. “All the results will be announced, in the presence of the mini stres of the TSE, for the president, the governors, senators and federal or state deputies”, that the Brazilians choose this Sunday during the general elections. The Datafolha reference institute gave Lula, 76, as head of the Party of Workers (PT), well ahead in the first round, with 50% of the votes cast, against 36% for Bolsonaro, 67 (Liberal Party).