Brazilians Vote in Presidential Runoff Between Lula and Bolsonaro Ally

Brazilians are casting votes on Sunday in a presidential runoff election pitting leftist incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva against Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, a far-right politician and ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Bolsonaro, the son of imprisoned former President Jair Bolsonaro, secured more than 2.2 million votes than Lula in the first round of voting earlier this month. However, over 33 million of the nearly 160 million registered voters did not participate in the initial election.

The candidates present sharply contrasting ideologies on key issues, including U.S.-Brazil relations, climate change, and social welfare. A victory for Bolsonaro would signal a shift to the right for Latin America's largest economy and most populous country, following similar rightward political movements in Chile, Peru, and Colombia in the past year.

Voting across Brazil began at 8 a.m. and will conclude at 5 p.m. Brasilia time. In addition to the presidential contest, six gubernatorial races are also on the ballot.

Brazil's electoral system utilizes electronic voting, which allows for rapid vote tabulation. Each ballot box locally calculates results and generates a printed summary. This encrypted data is then transmitted through secure networks to the Superior Electoral Court in the capital, Brasília, for aggregation and publication within hours. This system has been in place since the 1990s, with its efficiency largely unquestioned, though former President Bolsonaro has been a critic.

This election follows a trend in the region where allies of former President Trump have seen electoral successes in other South American nations.