The vote count for Brazil's presidential election had started, and election results were due to begin being released from 17h Brasília time. Voting was scheduled to end at 17h, with polling places keeping open for voters still in line.
Flávio Bolsonaro and Lula were two points apart in the Agregador de Pesquisas da News Brasil. The same live coverage said Lula had 13.09% of the valid votes in Israel and 68.5% in Finland.
TSE and the first tally
The News Brasil said the results came from ballot reports made available by the Tribunal Superior Eleitoral. It also planned special live coverage starting at 16h30 Brasília time, with real-time results in its interactive MAPA after the polls closed.
A candidate needs more than half of the valid votes to win in the first round. Since redemocratização, only Fernando Henrique Cardoso has done that, in 1994 and 1998.
Lula, Jair Bolsonaro and 2022
The recent pattern has favored a second round. In the last six elections, the contest went to a second round every time, and in 2022 Lula finished the first round with 48.4% of the valid votes while leading Jair Bolsonaro by 5.2 percentage points.
Nunes Marques said no signs of international interference were found during the electoral process. That leaves the first-round threshold as the central marker for readers tracking whether the count can end on Sunday or continue into another round.
