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News > Latin America

Brazil Update: Polls Have Closed in Brazil's Runoff Election

  • A supporter of Luis Inácio Lula da Silva poses after voting at the San Francisco Law School in the second round of the presidential elections, today in Sao Paulo (Brazil)

    A supporter of Luis Inácio Lula da Silva poses after voting at the San Francisco Law School in the second round of the presidential elections, today in Sao Paulo (Brazil) | Photo: EFE

Published 30 October 2022
Opinion

The counting of the votes is expected to be fast thanks to the electronic system used in the country, and the result is expected to be known in a few hours. 

On Sunday, some 156.4 million Brazilians are summoned to polling stations to elect their next president in the second round between the far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and the Workers' Party candidate Lula da Silva. Voting will take place in 5,570 Brazilian cities and in 181 locations abroad. Below are the main events as they happen.

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Brazilian Polling Stations Begin to Receive Voters

18H (8H GMT): Polls in this Sunday's ballot in Brazil began to close at 17.00 local time (20.00 GMT), after a day of voting that took place normally.

The counting of the votes is expected to be fast thanks to the electronic system used in the country, and the result is expected to be known in a few hours. 

15H30 (18H30 GMT): The president of the TSE, Alexandre Moraes, offers statements to the press with a balance of the election day so far and qualifies the day as "good."

He explained the closing of accounts and digital channels that have spread false news: 354 channels were demonetized in the last 36 hours. In addition, seven sites were demonetized and 701 URLs were deleted.

"Fifteen profiles of major propagators of fake news," Moraes said, were suspended, in addition to five Telegram groups with more than 500,000 participants.

Elsewhere, he said the TSE had ordered the Federal Police and Federal Highway Police not to stop or slow down the means of transporting, above all, the poorest people to the polling centers. 

Moraes said that the director of the PRF had expressed to him that "In no case were voters prevented from reaching the Polling Centers," he said that "it should not be exaggerated" and justified that the operations were carried out following the Brazilian highway code.

He ruled out postponing the closing of the polling centers.

10:00 am: Democracy will win: Lula da Silva. The presidential candidate of the Workers' Party voted early on the outskirts of Sao Paulo.

"I am convinced that the Brazilian people will vote for a project through which democracy will win," he said, asking citizens to turn out to vote in peace to ensure that the day passes without incident.

"Today is likely my life's most important day and I think it is a very important day for the Brazilian people because today they are defining the model of Brazil they want, the model of life they want," Lula stressed.

The tweet reads, "In every event and walk we did, we saw hope in people's eyes. We came here on the side of truth and with the faith that our country can see better days. Tomorrow,  vote 13. For love towards Brazil."

Lula arrived at the electoral precinct surrounded by people who acclaimed him. He was accompanied by his wife Rosangela Silva, Vice-Presidential candidate Geraldo Alckmin, Workers' Party President Gleisi Hoffmann, and environmental activist Marina Silva.

Previously, the Workers' leader criticized a violent episode involving a right-wing former lawmaker Carla Zambelli, who threatened black journalist Luan Araujo with a weapon in Sao Paulo on Saturday.

"That is the Brazil we do not want. We are fighting to live in a civilized country, where people respect each other, a country where a lawmaker does not carry a weapon and run after a citizen," Lula pointed out, adding that "it was a grotesque scene in a day when people could not carry weapons." 

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