Brazil Opens Presidential Runoff After Close First Round

Brazil’s presidential runoff opened Sunday with incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro competing for a four-year term after a close first round and final campaign rallies that underscored the contest’s tightness. The winner had not been determined in the reports available as voting began. The candidates held rallies on Saturday, October 24, the final day of campaigning. Lula addressed supporters at Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach and later appeared at a rally in São Paulo. Bolsonaro campaigned in Belo Horizonte, in Minas Gerais, and later went to Rio. Their events drew large crowds, though estimates varied: Rio City Hall put attendance at Lula’s Copacabana rally at about 1.1 million, while other accounts described the crowd more generally. The Superior Electoral Court reported that, with 99.99% of ballot boxes tallied in the October 4 first round, Bolsonaro received 47.03% of valid votes and Lula 45.16%. Neither secured a majority, sending the election to a runoff. The court said 158,745,463 voters were eligible in the 2026 election. Final polls showed a close race but offered different estimates. A CNT/MDA survey of 2,032 people conducted October...