BRAZIL | Lula wins first round in Brazillian National Elections

SAO PAULO, Brazil, October 3, 2022 - Leader of Brazil’s Workers' Party (PT), former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2011) has won the first round of votes in Sunday’s national elections with 48.36 percent of the valid votes cast.

His opponent,  right winger incumbent Jair Bolsonaro who, according to Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE), obtained 43.65 percent of the vote, has expressed confidence that he will win the October 30 runoff election between himself and Lula.

 According to Lula, "Throughout this campaign, we were ahead in the public opinion poll of all the institutes, even those who did not want us to win, and it always seemed to me that we were going to win these elections, and I want to tell you that we are going to win these elections. It is just an extension", he said in one of the auditoriums of the Jaraguá hotel in this state capital.

Lula obtained 48.20 percent of the valid votes on Sunday, while Bolsonaro won 43.39 percent.

Urgent: Lula continues to increase his lead against Bolsonaro, with 93.30% of the vote accounted for #Lula #Bolsonaro #brazil pic.twitter.com/0xZv6Bsd1e

teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) October 2, 2022

President Jair Bolsonaro was optimistic on Sunday ahead of the October 30 runoff, highlighting that the polls were wrong and that his party had a good result in the National Congress.

"We defeated the lie, now we have a second time ahead of us," the president said in statements to the media.

Of the 156 454 011 Brazilians who were; eligible to vote, nearly 80% exercised their right to vote in the elections for which the leader of the Workers' Party (PT), Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, and the Liberal Party, Jair Bolsonaro, were the favorites in all opinion polls.

According to the latest poll, Lula led with 50.7 percent of the valid votes, while Bolsonaro was in second place with 41 percent in the race for the presidency, in which 11 candidates participated.

The polls showed that the Workers' Party (PT) head and former president was leading the voting intentions since the beginning of the campaign and even showed his possibility of victory in the first round.

On the other hand, right-winger Bolsonaro, second in the race, maintained high levels of rejection.

#Brazil | Lula da Silva arrived at the voting station in Sao Bernardo do Campo in the midst of dozens of citizens who were lining up early.

"The country needs to regain the right to be happy. We want a country that lives in peace and hope, a country that believes in the future." pic.twitter.com/YPVNDl7mZX

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) October 2, 2022

Lula's campaign centered on the fight against hunger and poverty,as well as the defense of the Amazon, which comprises Brazil's biodiversity, and economic reactivation.

The first of the favorites to vote at the polling station in the neighborhood of Asunción, in the state of São Paulo, Lula commented after voting that "this country needs to finally recover its right to be happy (...) We want a country that lives in peace, a country that has hope, a country with a future and a country that can produce and build its future from the participation of its society."