Scratch that. Brazilian supreme court justice Cristiano Zanin has just ordered voting in the country’s presidential runoff on Sunday to be extended by two hours, granting a request from Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign.
Polls were initially set to close at 5pm Brasília time. Lula’s campaign alleged that authorities in several cities were restricting voter access to public transportation.
The decision follows allegations of attempted voter suppression in at least 10 states, where public transport appears to have been severely limited in what some suspect was a deliberate ploy to stop Lula voters reaching polling stations.
Earlier, Lula told reporters he had never before complained about elections he had been involved in, irrespective of whether he had won or lost. “But this time something abominable is happening.”
However, some polling stations may have already closed since the decision came so shortly after they were due to close. People should now be able to vote until 7pm.
Lula’s main bet in trying to overturn Bolsonaro’s lead was to increase turnout, after abstention reached a record high in the first round – which, according to many polls, disproportionately affected the leftist’s voters, who generally live farther from polling stations.
The figures are not yet final, but with 24.4% of polling stations counted, they indicated an abstention rate of 19.38%, down from 21.08% in the first round.
Abstention usually rises in Brazilian runoffs – the only exception was in 2022, when the tight contest between Lula and Jair Bolsonaro brought more voters to the polls in the final round.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Lula supporters have camped out on Paulista Avenue to watch the vote count, which started at 7pm local time.
Among them is Camilo Buarque, 35, who came with a bright red banner reading: “Lula: My President”.
“I feel so very happy being here and being here fighting for Lula,” Buarque says, predicting his leader will beat Bolsonaro.
“My confidence comes from the energy and the happiness and the love of these people [around me]. This is democracy,” Buarque says as the first results come in, giving Lula the lead. Fireworks exploded in the air above him as the crowd celebrated the early lead.
João Felipe, a 27-year-old logistics worker, is also there waiting for what he hopes will be a huge Lula party.
“I’ve always been poor and Lula was a very important person when it came to helping people improve their lives,” he says.
“Lula is going to turn this election around. Long live democracy,” Felipe predicts.
“My heart is beating a thousand beats a second but I’m confident,” said his partner, Ester Almeida, 28.
Flávio Bolsonaro is following the count from the mansion of one of his campaign coordinators in a wealthy area of the capital, Brasília. The dozens of journalists present are being kept separate from Bolsonaro and allied politicians, but from time to time they can hear bursts of celebration – like after a goal – whenever the count is updated and Bolsonaro narrows the gap with Lula.
When, with 13.65% of the vote counted, Flávio moved just slightly ahead with 50.01%, an AI-generated funk track began playing loudly and the senator’s guests started chanting a line commonly heard in Brazilian football stadiums: “Go at him, Flávio.”
And just like that, the race is already tightening further. Bolsonaro now has 50.01% of the vote, while Lula has 49.99% of the vote with just over 13.5% of ballots counted.
With 5% of votes counted Lula has taken an early lead with 51% of votes to Bolsonaro’s 48.87%. This is going to be a tight race and a very long night.
One of the most popular figures in Flávio Bolsonaro’s party, congressman Nikolas Ferreira, indicated that the far right could use the extension of voting hours as grounds to challenge the election result in the event of a victory by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Speaking to journalists outside the mansion in Brasília where Bolsonaro was due to follow the count, Ferreira said that “the only person harmed” by the extension was the senator – without, however, mentioning the voters who, as reports throughout the day showed, had been unable to vote because they had no transport.
“The extension only helps whoever is losing,” said the 30-year-old politician who, in the first round, became the most-voted federal congressman in Brazilian history, with 3.1 million votes. He added that justice Cristiano Zanin “wanted to disrupt the election” by issuing the ruling.
Bolsonaro’s campaign chief, senator Rogério Marinho, echoed that line and called the justice’s ruling an “intervention”.
“I sincerely hope common sense prevails and that any judicial coup or administrative manoeuvre does not succeed, for the sake of democracy,” he posted on social media.
Now two hours after the initial extension, polls have officially closed in Brazil (save for another surprise extension). Ballot count has begun.
Although voting time was extended across the country, some polling stations had already closed by the time that decision was announced. As Brazil uses electronic voting machines, once they are closed, they cannot be re-opened.
It’s not clear if certain polling stations had restrictions on if people who arrived after the initial deadline were allowed to vote, as rules usually stipulate that only people in line can still vote after the polls close.
The fact that ballot counting was already underway when the polls were suddenly ordered to remain open has led to some confusion and concerns about the integrity of the election results.
Five days after his defeat in the first round of the Brazilian presidential election, leftwing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spent almost 24 hours unable to boost his Instagram posts, while his opponent, far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro, could.
Lula’s lawyers included the episode in a list of incidents that they submitted to the electoral court and international observers as “evidence” that Meta, Instagram’s owner, was actively trying to interfere in Brazil’s election in Bolsonaro’s favour.
Reports from Lula supporters saying their content had been removed or its reach restricted flooded social media in Brazil, while about a dozen watchdogs and research groups published reports describing what they called “indications” that Meta may have favoured the senator’s campaign.
Meta called Lula’s allegations “false and unfounded”, saying there had been “technical incidents” that affected campaigns from “different parts of the political spectrum”.
The controversy fuelled the electoral battle between Lula and Bolsonaro and gained further traction after the electoral court ordered Meta not to give the candidates “unequal treatment”.
Lula supporters are starting to gather on Paulista Avenue, at the heart of São Paulo, in anticipation of a Lula victory.
The mood is upbeat but tense, amid suspicions that there has been a deliberate pro-Bolsonaro campaign to sabotage public transport systems to stop Lula voters reaching polling stations across the country.
Many people on Paulista Avenue outside the iconic São Paulo Museum of Art suspect foul play from Bolsonaro-supporting politicians and business people.
“I think it’s another coup attempt that the extreme right is trying in Brazil. But we need to really fight so we can win,” said Lucas Lopes, a 32-year-old from São Paulo who works with public relations.
“I’m really worried but I’m optimistic,” Lopes added as dozens of Lula supporters blocked the roads and danced with banners and flags.
“It’s a coup,” agreed Caio Marques, a 40-year-old photographer from Franca, a city in the interior of São Paulo state. “Their arrogance is such that they think they have already won and can do whatever they please and won’t be punished.”
Marques’s partner, Gabriela Leôncio, said: “They are [stopping] public transport in strategic places where Lula has historically had more votes. Where Lula has an advantage, people haven’t managed to get to their polling stations … They are trying several different types of coup.”
Marques predicted the ploy would fail. “I have faith it won’t [work] because the left is really mobilized,” he said. “I’ll be sincere: in the first round the left failed. But in the second round they woke up … and there is no coup that will take this away from us.”
Earlier this month, Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, led a rally in São Paulo, as he aims to be re-elected to a fourth presidential term, and faces serious opposition from rightwinger Flávio Bolsonaro. Taking the mic before a crowd on Avenida Paulista that organisers put at more than a million, the former union leader began: “I’m not sure whether to open this speech with ‘comrades’ or ‘fandoms from all over Brazil’.” The rally was organised by Lula’s Workers’ party (PT) and a string of other leftwing groups – but the spark came from pop music fandoms.
More than 600 Brazilian fanbase groups for Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Katseye, Demi Lovato, Harry Styles, Katy Perry, Selena Gomez, as well as Brazilian stars such as Anitta, Marina Sena and Ludmilla among others, all came together to back Lula, waging an intense online campaign as soon as Lula’s rival, son of imprisoned former president Jair Bolsonaro, came out on top in the first round on 4 October.
When the first round results came in, “I had this feeling I’d seen it all before with Jair Bolsonaro, and that was really frustrating,” says V, an Eilish fan who helps run Info Billie Brasil, one of the country’s biggest fan communities dedicated to the US singer. “So my first reaction was to use the only communication tool we have and get our community to embrace the cause: Lula’s re-election.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
