Lula prevails but will have to dispute the second round against a Bolsonaro who is gaining ground

There will be an extension in Brazil to elect the president who will rule for the next four years. This is how the voters have wanted it, who have shown the great division that exists in the country. Lula da Silva (76 years old), former president between 2003-2010, won this Sunday’s elections, but did not obtain the majority that all the polls predicted. The current president, Jair Bolsonaro (67 years old), who boasted at the time of casting his vote in Rio de Janeiro of winning in the first round, did not make his dream come true, but he survived the predictions. The leader of the Brazilian right did not kiss the canvas and, therefore, will have a second chance. Bolsonarism does not give up. The drama of the Brazilian people will have an extra time, 26 more chapters, until Sunday, October 30, in which the electronic ballot boxes will reopen to elect the man who will occupy the Planalto Palace. What will come from now is totally unpredictable considering the toughness of the campaign during the first round.

Brazilians seem to like morbidity. On election day they learned the sad news of the death of one of their boxing icons, Éder Jofre, at the age of 86. But the fight they prefer seems to be the one between a leftist like Lula da Silva and a far-rightist like Jair Bolsonaro. The six million extra votes that Lula got were not convincing enough to ‘knock out’ his rival in the first round of these elections in which Brazil is risking its future. With 99.99% counted, Lula had achieved 48.43% of 57.2 million voters. While Bolsonaro had 43.20% of 51 million voters.

“I love campaigning. And we have another 28 days. I never won an election in the first round,” Lula declared that he had no choice but to settle for this victory when he learned of the results in which he surpassed his rival by more than 6.1 million votes, but which were insufficient to win the election. first round. “It seems that fate likes to make me work a little harder. We are going to win again », she pointed out in an optimistic tone. «It is a matter of time, of waiting a few more days. It will be the first opportunity to have a face-to-face debate with the current president. So that we can make comparisons between the Brazil that he built and the Brazil that we built.”

Lula recalled that he will be 68 years old three days before the second round: “That will be my present,” he said and then warned that from this Monday he will be in the streets to try to win the presidency. “We do not rest. We are going to talk with our adversaries, with our friends. We are the best solution to solve the life of the Brazilian people », she stressed.

Bolsonaro beats the polls

The defeated president, but with fewer blows than many analysts and especially the polls had imagined, in this first round also showed his optimism and indicated that he will take advantage of the second to show the federal government’s policy during the pandemic -in which many agencies they point to him as guilty of more than half of the 658,000 deaths -, citing data from the economy, but he especially showed a clear interest in describing as liars all the polls that gave him for losing in the first round with a margin greater than 14 points .

“Now there is total confidence,” he said, who sowed doubts about the neutrality of the electoral system and who was feared and feared that if he lost he could act as the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, did, trying to perpetuate his mandate although in voting did not have the full confidence of the Brazilian people. Bolsonaro had reason to be satisfied. His party (PL, Partido Liberal) had won a notable victory in the Chamber of Deputies with 268 seats out of 513 and could also have a majority in the Senate, with 39 out of 81. This situation would make a possible Lula government very difficult in the event of win the second round and yes, instead, he would leave the country in the hands of Bolsonarism in the event of victory of the current president on October 30.

The most important election day in Brazil in recent years passed without major incidents. Lula and Bolsonaro cast their votes first thing in the morning. There was concern that abstention would have a large impact on the vote, but the final results have shown that it has been the same as four years ago, around 20%. During the middle of the count, the advantage always went to Bolsonaro. But when it reached 66%, equality arrived, and after counting 70, Lula began to command the vote.

The big surprise of the day was given by Simone Tebet, senator of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), writer, professor, lawyer, of Lebanese origin and daughter of Ramez Tebet who was a senator and president of the National Congress. Tebet (52 years old), who has held positions that no Brazilian woman has held before, has already appeared in the debates as a politician with many ideas. The candidate she surpassed Ciro Gomes and got almost 5 million votes to place herself as the third with the most votes after the two top candidates. «Do not expect me to omit. You make a decision. I already have it », she said upon learning the results.

The results only make it reflect this polarized Brazil at its maximum power. Between a leftist, older but progressive, who bases his campaign on what he did for the poor, on ending hunger, and a far-rightist who doubts the electoral system, who is against many freedoms, who defends the right to legitimate defense, the fight against drugs and violence, the protection of life from conception, the free market, the defense of the innocence of children and an honest government, as he openly confesses. The singer-songwriter Chico Buarque, who in the last week supported Lula along with her parents, will be able to continue singing his most successful song: “Oh, what will it be, what will it be.” The answer on October 30.