The polls officially close after a day of long lines

Brazilians faced this Sunday one of the most polarized presidential elections in their recent history. At the polls they decided between keeping Jair Bolsonaro in the Presidency or returning that place to Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva, a great favorite in the polls.

Around 156 million citizens were eligible to vote after a campaign marked by violence, cross-aggressions and accusations of electoral fraud issued by Bolsonaro. Winning in the first round is ‘Lula”s goal, for which he needs at least 50% of the valid votes.

These are the main news of the Brazilian election day, this October 2, 2022:

• 15:00 (BOG) The polls officially close, those who remain in line will be able to vote

The polls were officially closed on the day of the general elections, after nine hours of voting in which long lines and delays due to the biometric system were reported in various parts of Brazil.

Precisely, due to the delays and the high influx, the authorities reported that the right to vote is guaranteed to all people who have entered the voting lines before 5:00 p.m. local time.

The results that have been known so far are from votes abroad and it is expected that the final data will be known in a few hours thanks to the electronic system implemented in the country since 1996.

The non-governmental organization Electoral Transparency Brazil, which accompanies the election day, reported that despite the fact that large voting queues have been registered, they have advanced “regularly” throughout the country.

In a bulletin, the institution indicates that 273 randomly selected tables have been observed and a form was sent from each one. As analyzed, “the elections take place within a normal framework.”

However, the organization’s report exposed an incident with one of the electoral workers who wore clothing or accessories that favored the campaign of one of the candidates.

At 2:24 p.m. local time, the São Paulo Military Police reported that two of its agents were wounded by gunshots outside a voting center.

The events occurred at the Aurélio Campos school, located in the Cidade Dutra district and according to information from the authorities, the shooter fired at the soldiers in charge of the security of the place.

Through their Twitter account, the Police reported that the two agents are aware and have already received medical attention. Also, that the electoral college continues to function and also, that security was reinforced.

Since early, several polling stations in different cities of Brazil have registered long lines of voters, in some points, the wait is more than two hours. An example of this has occurred in cities in the states of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Pará, Minas Gerais and Goiás.

According to voters, the biometric system used in voting has also delayed the process at various points where voters did not register their fingerprints in advance.

In statements to the Brazilian media O’Globo, the judge of the Regional Electoral Office, Rudi Baldi, assured that all people who arrive before the polls close and are in line at 5:00 p.m. will be able to cast their vote.

The Brazilian Consulate in Lisbon reported that the election day, which was supposed to end at 5:00 p.m. local time, will be extended until 8:00 p.m. This was due to the high number of people who remained in line to vote outside the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon.

The estimate of the authorities is that within half an hour of the closing of the polls, there were at least 3,000 people in line to enter.

Consul Wladimir Valler Filho explained that the “Superior Electoral Court exceptionally extended the extension of the term. For this reason, the day will go until 8:00 p.m.”, while informing that the suffrage of the elderly, pregnant women and people with disabilities was prioritized. , as dictated by Brazilian law.

In a bulletin, the Police reported that up to 1:00 p.m. local time, 71 procedures related to election day had been carried out.

The report details that 16 of the operations were carried out for propaganda at the exit of electoral centers and 25 for any type of propaganda by political parties or their candidates.

Similarly, it states that five police investigations have been opened and that more than 68,000 reais have been seized during the day.

31% of the Brazilian population, which is equivalent to around 70 million people, declares itself evangelical and it is estimated that at least half supports President Jair Bolsonaro, so the vote of the other half became a challenge campaign for the Workers’ Party candidate, Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva.

The former president held a campaign event aimed at this group in the city of Rio de Janeiro and assured that “there was never in the history of Brazil a president who dealt with religion, the churches with the democracy with which I took care of this country.”

In cities such as Madrid, Paris, Milan, London and Berlin, long lines of voters have been registered with waiting times of more than an hour.

Meanwhile, Portugal has the largest number of Brazilians residing abroad. Figures from the Portuguese Service for Foreigners and Borders indicate that around 205,000 Brazilians live in this country, of which 45,000 are registered in Lisbon, where the lines exceeded an hour and a half to enter the only polling station enabled at the Law School of the University of Lisbon.

Dozens of supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro, dressed in green and yellow, and also supporters of former president ‘Lula’ da Silva, dressed in red, arrived at the site, and both groups chanted slogans of their respective candidates.

Problems were reported at the site with three of the 58 electronic machines. In one of those sections, a person voted manually and then went to another area where he voted electronically, which caused the invalidation of his vote and of the 59 that had been computed by the machine.

According to official data, the first country to report the closure of the vote was New Zealand. In that territory, former president ‘Lula’ da Silva obtained the majority of votes.

In Wellington, of the 451 valid votes, 329 went to the left-wing candidate, which is equivalent to 72.9% of the vote.

This, while President Jair Bolsonaro got 71 votes, which gives him 15.7% in this territory.

At 8 in the morning, local time, the polling stations in Brazil opened for the general elections in what are considered the most polarized elections in the country’s recent history.

Former president Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva is measured against the current head of state, Jair Bolsonaro, for the Presidency of the country. Both are the candidates with the highest vote intention.

‘Lula’, the favorite according to the polls, voted in the city of Sao Bernardo de Campo, in the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo, where he assured that Brazil needs to “recover the right to be happy” and added that “we want a country that lives in peace, with hope and that believes in the future”.

The former president, who governed for two terms between 2003 and 2010, arrived at his polling station just thirteen minutes after the polls opened and described the elections as the “most important” in his personal capacity.

For his part, President Jair Bolsonaro, second in voting intention according to the polls, cast his vote at a polling station in the Villa Militar in Rio de Janeiro.

The president attended the voting center wearing a yellow and green sports shirt with the national flag printed on the chest. According to the images, it could be seen that the president was wearing a bulletproof vest underneath.

In a brief appearance before the press after voting, the head of state assured that “we are calm. In the first round, the elections are decided today.”

The most recent polls, published on October 1, indicate that Bolsonaro is 14 points below ‘Lula’; however, in the event that none of the candidates reaches more than half of the valid votes, the two favorites will have to face each other in a second round scheduled for October 30.

156.4 million Brazilians are summoned to the polls to elect the president, 27 governors, 513 deputies, a third of the Senate and renew the representatives in the regional legislative assemblies.

There are nearly half a million electronic ballot boxes installed for these elections, which have a wide security device reinforced with the presence of the Army in more than 568 municipalities.

After the official closure of polling stations nationwide, for the first time in a single schedule, the Superior Electoral Court will begin to disseminate the first bulletins with official results.

The count is expected to end a few hours after the end of the day, thanks to the electronic voting system implemented in Brazil since 1996.

With EFE, AP and local media