BRASILIA (AFP) – Brazilians cast their votes in the most polarized presidential elections to date, with left-wing former president Luiz Incio Lula da Silva aiming to defeat right-wing incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the run-off vote.
Polling stations opened at 8am (11:00 GMT) on Sunday and closed at 5pm. The result is expected at about 2am local time on Monday.
Lula, who was president from 2003 to 2010, won the first round on October 2, but by a much smaller margin than expected by pollsters.
Bolsonaro was first in line to cast his vote at a military complex in Rio de Janeiro. He sported the green and yellow colors of the Brazilian flag that always feature at his rallies. “I’m expecting our victory, for the good of Brazil,” he told reporters afterward. “God willing, Brazil will be victorious today,” he added.
Heated debates were taking place among people lining at polling station ahead of their opening in the early morning.
Some supporters of Bolsonaro said the incumbent president should be elected as he is a defender of Christian values and the family, said Yanakiew, while Lula’s voters insisted that the former leader was the only one defending the poor.
“We are standing in an area which is traditionally composed by Lula voters as this is a big favelas where people are poor and usually voting for Lula, but it’s interesting to see this division which shows how this is a very tight race where results are very undefined,” Yanakiew said.
The mood in Latin America’s largest country of more than 210 million people was very divided after an extremely hard-fought election campaign.
Bolsonaro has repeatedly cast doubt on the electoral system and hinted that he might not recognize the result if he loses. The election is also receiving a lot of international attention. As a huge carbon reservoir, the Amazon rainforest plays an important role in the fight against global climate change.
In addition, Brazil has enormous natural resources and a large agricultural economy, making it an important player in international trade.
Lula has appealed to Brazilians to elect him to help “rebuild and transform” the country after four years under Bolsonaro. He has pledged to support low-income citizens and reinstate environmental protection policies, especially in the Amazon, which has seen a surge in deforestation and increased attacks against Indigenous people in recent years.