Brasilia, 08.10. (Prensa Latina) Former President Luiz Inácio Lulada Silva’s victory in the first round of presidential elections on October 2 with 48.43 percent of the vote stood out in Brazil this week.
“I always thought we were going to win. And here we go. It’s just an extension,” the Labor Party presidential candidate told the press in Sao Paulo after learning of his victory in last Sunday’s lawsuit.
The former union leader thanked the more than 58 million Brazilian voters for their trust and warned that now is the time to continue the fight and win at the end of the month.
Lula will be running in the second ballot on October 30 against far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, who is seeking re-election with the Liberal Party and won 43.20 percent in the election.
More than 156 million eligible Brazilians have chosen their next president, but that will only be decided in a second ballot.
Also in the consultation, the state vice president, governors and lieutenant governors of the states and federal districts would be appointed; Senators, federal deputies and state deputies.
11 presidential candidates took part in the elections and according to national legislation, in order to be elected, a candidate must obtain an absolute majority of the votes, ie more than half of the valid votes (excluding blanks and zero votes).
If none of the power candidates meet this criterion, the second round takes place.
The same criteria applied to the election of governors in municipalities with more than 200,000 inhabitants.
For federal legislatures, the 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 27 benches, one for each federal unit, of the 81 total seats that make up the Senate were in contention.
Likewise, the federal, state and district deputies were elected according to the so-called proportional representation system, i.e. the representatives of the most elected parties or coalitions, after calculating the party quotient.
The federal constitution stipulates that every literate citizen born or naturalized in the country between the ages of 18 and 70 had to vote.
Voting rights were optional for young people aged 16 and 17, those over 70 and those who were illiterate. This means that they could exercise their right but were not legally obliged to do so.