Brazil: last polling stations close after two-hour extension and TSE resumes runoff count

Brasília, Brazil — The last polling stations in Brazil closed this Sunday at 7:00 p.m. Brasília time, ending the extraordinary two-hour extension ordered by the Supreme Court and allowing the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to resume counting votes in the presidential runoff between Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro.

Polls had been scheduled to close at 5:00 p.m. Brasília time, but Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin ordered that voting be extended until 7:00 p.m. at every polling station in the country, according to official sources cited by the EFE news agency. The measure responded to a petition from Lula's campaign, which reported incidents affecting voter transportation in several cities and said some opposition mayors had not complied with the Electoral Justice order to keep municipal transportation running at full capacity and free of charge, as on a working day.

The decision arrived after the count had already begun: the TSE paused it six minutes after it started, when only 0.25% of polling stations had been counted. In that first partial result, Lula led with 57.66% of valid votes against 42.34% for Bolsonaro, an early lead that, given the tiny sample, does not allow the final outcome to be anticipated.

The extension caused confusion at some centers: a substantial share of polling stations had already closed at 5:00 p.m., issued their ballot printouts and even begun sending devices to the regional electoral courts. Both the Supreme Court and the TSE clarified that the extension applied only to stations that were still receiving voters.

When counting resumed, with 1.50% counted, Lula remained ahead with 52.27% against 47.73% for Bolsonaro, according to the day's reporting. The TSE will release results as ballot printouts from the electronic voting machines arrive, in an election that final polls described as a technical tie.

In the first round, on October 4, Flávio Bolsonaro won 47.03% of valid votes against 45.16% for Lula. This article follows up on the coverage published this afternoon about voting day; the final result will be known as the official count progresses.

Photo: Archivo A Lo Claro

Source: AlbertoNews (EFE)