Brazil’s presidential election will go to a run-off

FOR LUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA, Brazil’s leftist former president, it was a disappointing result. His supporters had dared to hope that Lula, as he is known, might win an outright majority in a presidential election on October 2nd. Instead the race was far tighter than most opinion polls had predicted. Lula attracted 48% of the vote, while Jair Bolsonaro, the hard-right populist incumbent, won 43%. The pair will face each other in a run-off on October 30th.

The polarised campaign turned largely on which candidate Brazilians disliked least. Many blame Mr Bolsonaro for mishandling the pandemic, for his crude attacks on opponents and for a generally lacklustre economic record during his term. Many others blame Lula and his Workers’ Party (PT) for a previous economic slump, from 2014 to 2016, and for a massive corruption scandal known as Lava Jato (Car Wash). Lula spent 18 months in jail for receiving bribes, though his convictions were later overturned. At one point, 38% of Brazilians said they didn’t want either Mr Bolsonaro or Lula as president. But no other candidate mustered much support.