Brazilian senator Flavio Bolsonaro, son of the far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, opens a wide lead ahead of incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in partial results from today’s election.
With results in from around a quarter of the country’s electronic ballot boxes, Flavio Bolsonaro has about 51% to Lula’s 41%, while several other candidates stand in the single digits.
Opinion polls ahead of the election showed Lula slightly ahead, and a likely run-off for the candidates on October 25.
To win in the first round, a candidate must score more than 50% of the vote.
Flavio Bolsonaro, 45, is monitoring the vote count in Brasilia, while Lula is following from Sao Paulo, where he is scheduled to lead a march of supporters later.
Flavio Bolsonaro was a little-known senator a few months ago when his father anointed him his political heir, unable to run himself as he serves a 27-year sentence for an attempted coup after losing a 2022 election bid.
The 80-year-old Lula is seeking a fourth term at the helm of Latin America’s biggest nation, a major leftist bastion in a region engulfed by a conservative wave in recent months.
More from today’s Liveblog:
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From the Liveblog of
Monday, October 5, 2026
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