Elections in Brazil 2022 live: Elections close in the fourth largest democracy in the world | Brazil

The results are coming fast and Bolsonaro continues to lose ground. For the first time since the count began, he now leads by less than 1%.

More than half of the votes have now been counted, and although Bolsonaro’s lead has narrowed again – now to just 1.44% – he’s still ahead: pic.twitter.com/cAFYEL2i5Z

— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) October 2, 2022

Even tighter – Lula approaches Bolsonaro by a margin now 1.3%.

About Tom Phillips, the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent.

With 52% of the votes counted, it is now Bolsonaro 46.3% and Lula almost 45%

— Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) October 2, 2022

Updated at 23.47 BST

Bolsonaro is in the lead with half of the votes counted

With more than 50% of the votes counted, Bolsonaro is further ahead.

The latest Datafolha poll released on Saturday showed a 50-36 percent advantage for da Silva among those looking to vote. 12,800 people were interviewed.

However, Bolsonaro’s lead is steadily shrinking. It is now less than 2%.

More than half of the votes have now been counted, and although Bolsonaro’s lead has narrowed again – now to just 1.44% – he’s still ahead: pic.twitter.com/cAFYEL2i5Z

— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) October 2, 2022

Updated at 23.45 BST

Bolsonaro’s lead over Lula appears to be narrowing as votes are counted from traditionally pro-Lula areas such as northeastern Brazil.

The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent Tom Phillips reports that “there is real tension in the air as Lula votes in São Paulo for counting, but his supporters are confident the tide is beginning to turn. The question is will they turn far enough for Lula to avoid a second lap.”

Lula immersed himself in the labor movement and led a series of historic strikes in 1979, cementing his position as Brazil’s most prominent union leader and paving the way for the creation of the Workers’ Party (PT), which Lula leads to this day.

After seizing power in 2002, Lula used the windfall of a commodity boom to lift millions of citizens out of poverty and became a respected international statesman, helping Brazil win the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.

“He made Brazil a major player on the world stage… Brazil was a serious country – it helped found the G20, it built relationships… with the Brics [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa]. Brazilians have been nominated to head the WTO and FAO,” said Richard Bourne, Lula’s British biographer.

Lula left power in 2010 with approval ratings approaching 90%. But the decade that followed was a brutal one for the left and his party. The PT has been embroiled in a series of wide-ranging corruption scandals and has been accused of plunging Brazil into a deep recession. Lula’s successor, Dilma Rousseff, was impeached in 2016 in what many supporters dubbed a “political coup.”

With 40% of the votes counted, Bolsonaro still leads Lula, but by a smaller margin as more results come in – left leader Lula is just 2.85% behind the far-right incumbent:

Scottish journalist Andrew Downie reports for the Guardian from São Paulo:

Jair Bolsonaro received encouraging news in the capital, Brasilia, where his former minister, Damares Alves, was elected senator. With 90% of the votes counted, Damares had 45%, well ahead of Flavia Arruda with 26.8%.

The lawyer and evangelical pastor was one of Bolsonaro’s staunchest supporters, who was appointed Minister for Women, Family and Human Rights in a controversial decision in December 2018.

Just days later, she caused controversy when she said a new era had begun, where “boys wear blue and girls wear pink.”

She also said that when she was 10 years old, she would drink poison and kill herself, but saw Jesus climbing a Goiaba tree. The revelation, she said, saved her life.

The Senate race was seen as one of the most important events on a day when 27 of Brazil’s 81 senators are facing re-election, and a surprise given just last week a TV Globo poll of the two leading candidates, both ministers under Bolsonaro were, determined. tied to 28%.

Updated at 23.40 BST

Here’s more about that early lead for Bolsonaro, via Portal:

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro took the lead early in the country’s first tally of the presidential election on Sunday, ahead of challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Lula), whose Labor Party is gaining more support from slower-reporting regions.

At a 20 percent count of electronic voting machines, Bolsonaro led with 48 percent of the vote, versus 43 percent for Lula, the national electoral authority said on its website.

When the left-wing Workers Party (PT) last won a presidential election in 2014, their advantage only became apparent after two hours of vote counting. Results from the poorer northeast of Brazil, a traditional PT stronghold, often take longer to reach the TSE.

There were reports of long lines outside polling stations, closing at 17:00 (2000 GMT) as many Brazilians turned out to vote in a tense election punctuated by isolated violence and fears of a sharp rise in gun ownership under Bolsonaro.

Most opinion polls have shown Lula a 10-15% lead, but Bolsonaro has signaled he could refuse to accept defeat, raising fears of an institutional crisis. If Lula wins more than 50% of the valid votes, which several pollsters within reach show, he would claim a clear victory and forgo a runoff.

If no candidate receives more than half of the votes, barring blank and spoiled ballots, the top two finishers will go into the Oct. 30 runoff.

With that, here’s more on Lula, the man who was expected to defeat far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Lula is one of Latin America’s most influential and enduring politicians — an articulate statesman whom Barack Obama once described as “the most popular president in the world.”

But if Fidel hadn’t reproached Castro almost four decades ago, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva might have given up one of the most famous political careers the region has ever seen.

“He screwed him,” said Lula’s biographer and friend Fernando Morais of the moment the Cuban revolutionary confronted the Brazilian trade unionist for considering throwing in the towel after his 1982 bid to become governor of São Paulo become, had failed.

“Listen, Lula… You have no right to give up politics. You have no right to do this to the working class,” Castro told the Brazilian during a trip to Havana, according to Morais’ best-selling biography. “Back to politics!”

Lula’s chronicler believes it was a pivotal moment in the life of his 76-year-old subject who took his Cuban host’s advice to heart.

Some observant readers have pointed out that in the screenshot I posted of the results, Lula’s name has been replaced with the word “Squid” (the word “Lula” means squid in Portuguese). This message is sent to you by Google Translate.

Updated at 23.16 BST