Brazil election goes to second round

By James Blears

Brazil's elections are going into their second round of voting.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, leftist and former two-term president, gained just over 48 percent of the vote, while right-wing incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, who is seeking re-election,  received just over 43 percent. 

It has been a much closer race than expected.

It shows just how fickle opinion polls can be, because recent ones indicated a comfortable first round victory for Lula.

The runoff is on 30 October, so there are just under four weeks of going the extra mile and persuading the nine other candidates to join their particular alliance.

Lula couldn't take part in the 2018 Presidential Election, because he had been convicted of corruption and money laundering charges.

These were later annulled and quashed by the Supreme Court.

Lula served 19 months in prison before being exonerated and freed. He's now seventy-six, while Jair is sixty-seven. 

Both remain confident of final victory.

Needless to say, in the world's fourth largest democracy, this time around, few are likely to believe in those opinion polls.