Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, popularly known as just Lula, will be elected as the new president of Brazil according to the poll done by Datafolha. The former president had 49% of the total votes, whereas the current president Jair Bolsonaro had 44%, with 6% choosing to vote blank and 1% still indecisive about their vote. The study has a margin of error of 2% both ways.
Lula with his signature “L”, popular amongst his supporters I Andre Penner (AP)
On the first round, the Liberal Party’s (PL) candidate Jair Bolsonaro had 43.2% of the votes and the Workers’ Party’s (PT) candidate Lula had 48.43% of them. First time candidate Simone Tebet, from the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), came third in the race with 4.16% of the votes. The remaining valid votes were shared between the remaining 4 candidates. Astonishingly, 20.95% of the population did not show up to vote, even though in Brazil it is mandatory to do so.
Democracia. pic.twitter.com/zvnBbnQ3HG
— Lula (@LulaOficial) October 30, 2022
With the first round in the books, the second round will take place on the 30th of October. Both candidates will be using the downtime between rounds to sway the leftover voters their way. Lula will be working in the southeast region of Brazil, especially in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, where he was defeated by a great margin. Meanwhile, Bolsonaro will be heading to the northeast part of the country to try to persuade voters to not lose in every single state again.
Latest debate heats things up between Lula and Bolsonaro
In the latest debate before the voting, Lula and Bolsonaro faced each other for the first time without any other candidates taking part. The debate was described by many viewers as a confrontation, with both candidates choosing to attack the other personally. Lula was quick to mention Bolsonaro’s failure to step up during the Covid-19 pandemic which has caused the death of around 687.000 Brazilians. Meanwhile, Bolsonaro´s chose to go for his rival’s corruption charges which kept him imprisoned for 580 days.
