Lula and Bolsonaro to face run-off in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil’s biterly divisive presidential election is headed for a runoff on Oct.30 as incumbent Jair Bolsonaro beat expectations to finish a closer-than-expected second to frontrunner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Lula, the veteran letist seeking a presidential comeback, had 48.4 per cent of the vote to 43.2 per cent for the far-right president with more than 99 per cent of polling station results in, according to the Superior Electoral Tribunal.

It was an unexpectedly strong result for combative ex-army captain Bolsonaro - and for Brazil’s far-right, which also had surprise good showings in a series of key Congressional and governors’ races.

Lula, the popular but tarnished ex-president who led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, had been the favourite to win the race - possibly in a single round.

On the eve of the election, leading polling firm Datafolha had given Lula 50 per cent of the vote to 36 per cent for Bolsonaro.

To win in the first round, a candidate had to get more than 50 per cent of the vote.

Instead, Bolsonaro, 67, and Lula, 76, will now dig in for a four-week fight to the final bell. Bolsonaro hailed the result as a win.

“We beat the lie today,” he told reporters, referring to the pre-vote polls.

“Now the campaign is ours... I’m completely confident. We have a lot of positive accomplishments to show.”

Lula rallied his disappointed backers, vowing: “we are going to win these elections” in a speech to hundreds of supporters decked out in Workers’ Party red on Sao Paulo’s main avenue.

“We’re going to keep fighting until the final victory,” he said. But the result fell short of expectations for his backers, who were let fearing an ugly race.

“It’s going to be a difficult campaign,” said Lula fan Viviane Laureano da Silva, who had gathered with hundreds of other supporters for what they hoped would be a first-round victory celebration in central Rio de Janeiro.

“But Lula’s going to win. I’m from the slums, and I’ve seen how people there support him,” said the 36-year-old civil servant.

“I don’t know what’s happening to Brazil. Fity per cent of our population is sick. Lula is the only one who can heal our people,” said Jose Antonio Benedeto, 63, carrying a banner reading “Love and truth will prevail” in Sao Paulo.

Lula, an ex-metalworker who rose from destitute poverty to become the most popular president in Brazilian history, is seeking to stage a return ater falling spectacularly from grace and spending 18 months in jail.

Convicted in a massive grat scheme involving state-run oil company Petrobras, he regained the right to run for office last year when the Supreme Court annulled his convictions.