The two candidates for the presidency of Brazil have already voted this Sunday in the second round of the presidential elections. With a yellow and green shirt reminiscent of the soccer team and protected underneath with a bulletproof vest, the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has done it.
The far-right candidate has exercised his right around 8 in the morning, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where he has greeted some voters who support him. He has been an early riser, because just at that time the polling stations have opened.
“The expectation is victory, we only have good news in recent days. God willing, we will be victorious today afternoon. Or better, Brazil will be victorious today afternoon,” Bolsonaro said in brief statements to the press. .
His rival in this second round of the presidential elections, the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, did the same an hour and a half later and in Sao Bernardo do Campo, on the outskirts of São Paulo. The former president and candidate with the most votes in the first round went to the electoral college dressed in a simple white shirt and accompanied by some of his collaborators, whom he thanked for their support.
“I am convinced that the people of Brazil are going to vote for my project, the democracy project. That it supports vulnerable people who want to live in a civilized society with rights. This country has gone backwards. We want all people take a step forward, that everyone has better opportunities,” Lula da Silva told reporters.
Some 156.4 million Brazilians are called to the polls, which will remain open until 5:00 p.m. (local time), although as in the first round, held on October 2, all voters who are in the line at closing time.
Championing a broad progressive front to which center and center-right forces have joined, Lula da Silva was the most voted candidate with 48.4% of the vote, compared to 43.2% obtained by Bolsonaro.
The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) of Brazil has ordered the Federal Police to clarify whether their operations carried out this Sunday can interfere in the presidential elections. Specifically, the president of the TSE, Judge Alexandre de Moraes, has issued a resolution that requires the Federal Police to clarify whether the operations carried out by this body have any impact on the data systems of the Integrated Center for National Command and Control. .
The TSE order has been issued as a result of a complaint filed by a left-wing deputy, who stated that there is an “instrumentalization” of the Federal Police and the Federal Highway Police “aimed at eventually interfering in the electoral process.” According to deputy Paulo Teixeira, these organizations controlled by the Brazilian government intend to “create artificial political facts for the benefit of President Jair Bolsonaro’s candidacy for re-election” and to the detriment of his opponent, Lula da Silva.
For his part, the far-right president and his supporters have raised doubts about the reliability of the electronic ballot boxes that have been used in Brazil since 1996 without ever having been reported as fraud.
