Brazil: Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro have already voted in a tight runoff; results start at 5:00 p.m. Brasília time

Brasília, Brazil — Both candidates for Brazil's presidency have already voted on Sunday in a tight runoff that will decide whether Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wins a fourth term or Flávio Bolsonaro returns his family to the Planalto Palace.

According to reports from election day, Lula voted in São Bernardo do Campo, in São Paulo's industrial belt, accompanied by his wife, Janja, and political allies. Before voting, the president said he had never seen a popular mobilization like this campaign's and accused his rival of being incapable of telling the truth.

Flávio Bolsonaro, meanwhile, voted at around 8:20 a.m. at the Barão Homem de Mello municipal school in Vila Isabel, in northern Rio de Janeiro, alongside his wife, Fernanda. The Liberal Party candidate urged people to vote 'rain or shine' and, according to Metrópoles, plans to follow the count in Brasília.

Voting is proceeding normally in early local reports, with lines at several polling stations and a Superior Electoral Court (TSE) operation that includes monitoring weather risks, according to UOL. TSE president Kassio Nunes Marques voted early in Brasília and expressed confidence in a calm election day.

More than 158.7 million Brazilians are called to vote between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Brasília time. In the first round on October 4, Flávio Bolsonaro won 47.03% of valid votes against Lula's 45.16%, a 1.87-point gap that leaves today's outcome wide open.

The TSE will begin publishing results from 5:00 p.m. Brasília time, 4:00 p.m. on the U.S. East Coast. That time marks the start of publication, not the announcement of a winner: the pace will depend on the arrival of reports from the electronic ballot boxes.

Photo: Archivo A Lo Claro

Source: Demócrata