Brazil election: Lula looks tired and exhausted – many Bolsonaro fans are also dissatisfied
Created: 04/10/2022 05:05
By: Lisa Kuner
The election campaign in Brazil is extremely polarized - now it's time for the runoff between ex-President Lula and incumbent Bolsonaro.
Rio de Janeiro – In the early Sunday afternoon, the mood was still boisterous at Praça São Salvador in Rio de Janeiro.
In Brazil, presidential elections were taking place and hundreds of supporters and fans of the challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had gathered in the central square on election afternoon to celebrate the possible election victory of the Workers' Party (Partido Trabalhador, PT).
In addition to Lula, incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro is a favorite.
After the polling stations closed at 5 p.m. local time and the counting of the votes began, the exuberant mood quickly subsided.
It quickly became clear that Bolsonaro would do significantly better than all the polls had predicted.
The polls had recently seen the left-wing Social Democrat Lula with around 50 percent of the votes in the first ballot and the far-right incumbent Bolsanaro with well under 40. Many people who came to the Praça São Salvador on Sunday had hoped that Lula had already won the election wins in the first ballot.
Presidential election in Brazil: Both Lula and Bolsonaro are extremely polarizing
Shortly after 9 p.m., more than 90 percent of the votes have been counted – and it is clear that it was not enough to win the first ballot.
After counting 99 percent of the votes, 48.4 percent of Brazilians voted for Lula and 43.2 percent for Bolsonaro.
The candidates Simone Tebet and Ciro Gomes ended up lagging behind the two favorites with around four and around three percent respectively.
In addition to the future president, deputies, senators and governors were also elected in Brazil.
Since none of the candidates achieved an absolute majority of more than 50 percent of the votes, the runoff between Bolsonaro and Lula will take place in four weeks on October 30th.
Both candidates are extremely polarizing.
Former trade unionist Lula was President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.
If he wins the runoff, he will be Brazil's first democratically elected president to serve a third term.
Bolsonaro has ruled Brazil since 2018, and he made headlines with high deforestation rates and his deficient pandemic management.
Election day in Brazil: A man in Rio de Janeiro amidst campaign advertisements © Carl de Souza/AFP
Runoff election in Brazil: mood among Lula supporters depressed
Lula's supporters are sobered on election night: Lula was able to win the election, but the result is much closer than the visitors to the Praça São Salvador, for example, had hoped for.
"I was hoping Lula would win the first ballot and this nightmare would end.
The run-off election is becoming more and more difficult and tense,” says Juliana Magalhães Nogueira in an interview with Ippen.Media.
She
actually wanted to celebrate Lula's victory tonight, but now she's disappointed that her candidate is only a few percentage points ahead of Bolsonaro.
But she also sees positive things: "I was surprised at how peaceful the election was today.
I thought there would be more conflicts," she says.
Most election observers share their assessment and describe the course of the election as peaceful, feared unrest did not materialize.
Alexandre de Moraes, President of the Brazilian Electoral Commission, said the smooth process reflected the "democratic maturity" of the Brazilian people.
Exact turnout figures are not yet available, but long queues at the polling stations, sometimes lasting several hours, indicate that a particularly large number of Brazilians exercised their right to vote this year.
Nelson Oliveira Santana voted for Lula and actually wanted to celebrate his victory in Rio de Janeiro - nothing came of it.
"I am very sad that this monster that has ruled Brazil for the past four years is going to the runoff.
We all have to join forces now so that Lula wins and we remove this fascist from office," he explains in an interview with Ippen.
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Brazil election: Lula looks exhausted - "Tomorrow we'll be back on the streets"
Not only his followers, but also Lula himself is disappointed.
The presidential candidate appeared before the press in São Paulo late in the evening.
The 76-year-old looked tense and tired.
"I said yesterday that I want to win every election on the first ballot, but that's not always possible," he said.
Nevertheless, he is combative: "Tomorrow we will be back on the streets to win the election".
Although Bolsonaro has done much better than the polls suggested, his supporters don't seem to be in the mood to celebrate either.
This may also be due to the fact that many of them did not trust the polls anyway and were convinced that Bolsonaro would win in the first ballot.
Bolsonaro himself described the polls on election night as "lies".
Brazil chooses: Many Bolsonaro supporters are also dissatisfied – ordeal for the country
Regiane Felix would probably agree too.
“I think the whole vote was fraud.
Everything that comes from the Labor Party is fraud,” she says in the Copacabana district in an interview with Ippen about the election results.
“In the next few weeks we are working to show the real politics of Bolsonaro.
Democracy is on our side, not on the side of the filthy and corrupt Labor Party.”
In recent weeks, Bolsonaro has repeatedly cast doubt on the Brazilian electoral system and raised possible electoral fraud.
There was no evidence for this, but many of his followers believed him.
Max Baier also voted for Bolsonaro in the first ballot.
He is satisfied with the election result and does not believe in voter fraud.
"The majority of Brazilians want an extreme right-wing government," he explains.
“Our fear is ending up like Venezuela, Cuba or Argentina.
In addition, the population is fed up with all the corruption.
We also fight against socialism.
I hope Brazil remains Latin America's only right-wing democracy."
The extremely polarized election campaign in Brazil will continue in the coming weeks before a decision is made at the end of the month who will govern for the next four years – a crucial test for the country's democracy.