Runoff Day One: Two Right-Wing Rivals Endorse Bolsonaro as Lula Regroups
The runoff phase of Brazil's presidential election opened on Monday, October 5. Reuters reported that two right-wing candidates eliminated in Sunday's first round — former Goias governor Ronaldo Caiado and former Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema — endorsed Senator Flavio Bolsonaro for the October 25 runoff against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Caiado won 2.18 percent of valid votes in the first round and Zema 0.27 percent; Caiado's team said he would meet Bolsonaro on Tuesday to announce the endorsement formally, while Zema posted his on social media.
The first-round result defied most forecasts: Bolsonaro led with about 47 percent of valid votes to Lula's roughly 45 percent, on about 56.1 million votes to 53.8 million. Among other leading finishers, author-psychiatrist Augusto Cury, on 2.89 percent, and Renan Santos, on 2.24 percent, said they would endorse neither man, leaving their voters a key variable in the runoff.
Bolsonaro's Liberal Party was also the biggest winner of Sunday's congressional elections, rising from 15 to 28 Senate seats and taking 121 seats in the lower house — the strongest single-party showing in years. Reuters noted that an allied Congress, and especially Senate, would help Bolsonaro pursue an amnesty for his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election.
Lula's campaign regrouped in Sao Paulo, with the president calling the runoff a new campaign. Analysts noted that runoff polls show a near dead heat, and that the scale of Bolsonaro's first-round polling miss has cast doubt on subsequent surveys — making every rally in the next three weeks count.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：巴西总统府高原宫，巴西利亚。摄影：Annemariebr at English Wikipedia，Public domain，取自 Wikimedia Commons
