Polls close in Brazil as Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro remain neck and neck

What the report says

Polls have closed in Brazil’s general election after a tense first round of voting in which President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and right-wing challenger Flávio Bolsonaro were still neck and neck, according to BBC World News. The vote was held across a country with more than 158.7 million eligible voters, including Brazilians abroad, and long queues were reported at some polling stations.

The BBC said the contest is expected to be close, with its poll aggregator showing only a narrow gap between the two main candidates. If neither reaches an outright majority, the race will go to a run-off on 25 October. Official results are expected within hours, though Brazil’s electoral court had not set an exact release time at the time of publication. Lula and Bolsonaro are among 12 candidates on the ballot, but the BBC said others are likely to take only a small share of the vote.

The result also matters beyond the presidency because 54 of the Senate’s 81 seats are being decided. That will shape the next legislature from 2027 onward. The BBC noted that the election comes after years of political tension in Brazil, including the legacy of the 2022 contest and the fallout from the uprising by Jair Bolsonaro supporters that followed it.

More broadly, the outcome is being watched for its regional and international implications, with the BBC saying a Bolsonaro win would fit a wider rightward shift in Latin America, while another Lula term could deepen frictions with Washington.