We’re going to wrap up the live blog for today. We will continue to cover the twists and turns of this extraordinary election period – which is now set to drag on for another three weeks – as it continues.
Thanks to my indefatigable colleagues Tom Phillips and Dom Phillips for their stellar reporting and thanks to everyone who tweeted in, emailed and read along.
What we know so far
- Jair Bolsonaro has won a resounding victory in the Brazilian presidential election, securing far more of the vote than he was predicted to.
-
Bolsonaro got 49 million votes on Sunday – 46% of the total, compared to Fernando Haddad’s Workers’ party (PT), which won just 29%, or 31 million votes.
- However, Bolsonaro’s total was just shy of the majority he needed for an outright win meaning a second round of voting will occur on 28 October, which will see Bolsonaro and Haddad face off to become president.
- Bolsonaro did not appear at a scheduled press conference due to health reasons, but in a Facebook Live broadcast he declared to unite the nation.
- Bolsonaro and his followers have declared fraud and faulty electronic systems were a factor in today’s election, saying if there hadn’t been issues with the voting system “we would already have decided the name of the future president”.
- Bolsonaro’s PSL party president said the PSL had won 52 seats in the lower house, making it the second biggest party and giving it a “high capacity” to govern Brazil.
- Fernando Haddad is now the only man who can stop Bolsonaro from becoming president, though he faces a battle some commentators have suggested is “almost impossible”.
- Haddad hinted at some kind of second round alliance, saying he had already spoken to three of the other candidates – Marina Silva, Ciro Gomes and Guilherme Boulos.
Bolsonaro with the last word: lOur country is great and prosperous, not a criminal faction to be run from inside a prison. Good night to you all!” https://t.co/WyUhPB97jy
— Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) October 8, 2018
Could an alliance stop Bolsonaro?
Fernando Haddad, Bolsonaro’s opponent in the pivotal second-round vote on 28 October, has mountain to climb if he is to scupper the right-wing populist’s dramatic political ascent.
Bolsonaro secured more than 49 million votes on Sunday – 46% of the total and just shy of the majority he needed for an outright win – while Haddad’s Workers’ party (PT) won just 29%, or 31 million votes.
Just to draw level with Bolsonaro, Haddad would need virtually every single one of the voters who opted for the third and fourth-placed candidates, Ciro Gomes and Geraldo Alckmin, to switch to his side. Those hoping Haddad can still win out, believe he must now position himself as a centrist champion of democracy who can prevent Brazil from lurching back towards the kind of murderous, authoritarian rule Bolsonaro has so often said he admires.
Heloísa Starling, a Brazilian historian, said she believed Haddad now needed to piece together “a great democratic coalition” if Brazil was to avoid being hurtled back towards “tyranny”.
“It can’t just be a left-wing coalition - it must include everyone who is prepared to defend democracy, whoever they may be,” Starling said.
Ciro Gomes, who came third with 12.5% of the vote and potentially has the most support to transfer to Haddad, said it was too earlier to say what he would do. But he ruled out support for Bolsonaro – “Not him, definitely!”
Winter, however, said he was doubtful that such an alliance would be enough: “Haddad is going to tack to the centre – a bit – he’s going to make an appeal for democracy,” Winter predicted. “But it’s not clear there is anybody left in the centre and democracy has become a bad word in Brazil. It’s a synonym for weakness and chaos and leniency with criminals and I just think those appeals for democracy are going to fall on mostly deaf ears.”
Updated
Dom Phillips has more from that press conference in Rio de Janeiro.
Gustavo Bebianno Rocha, president of Bolsonaro’s PSL party, said it now had 52 deputies in the lower house where it was now the second biggest party. This could be combined with the support from powerful Congress groups like the agribusiness caucus.
“This shows a high capacity to govern Brazil,” Rocha said.
He said there could be more negotiations with other parties over more potential Congress support – apart from anyone on the “extreme left”.
“In the second round it is natural there will be conversations,” he said. “Jair Bolsonaro surprised everyone with his strength.” Bolsonaro will attend debates during the second round, he said.
Rocha said that the party had travelled all over Brazil, using commercial airlines, eating badly, traveling in uncomfortable cars, and the results on Sunday proved the effort was worth it.
“It was worth it to get close to the Brazilian people,” he said.
He said political marketeers and experts will have to “rewrite everything”, and that Sunday’s result meant that the rules had been rewritten.
“We always believed the polling institutes were wrong,” he said.
Rocha also said he believed the assailant who stabbed Bolsonaro had not acted alone.
“We don’t accept the thesis that he acted alone, it is not true. He is a marginal linked to the Brazilian left and we will investigate.”
Onyx Lorenzoni, a lawmaker from the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, was introduced as the probable chief of staff.
“Bolsonaro reaped a result at the polls today because we listened to the streets, talking to electors. He really represents hope. The last hope of the Brazilians and Brazilians believe this hope will triumph,” he said.
Updated
Dom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro reports:
Jair Bolsonaro did not appear at the press conference his Social Liberal Party held at a hotel near his home. Party chairman Gustavo Bebianno Rocha said that was “because of his state of health, not precarious but in recovery.” There had been “physical contact” when Bolsonaro went to vote, Rocha said, and federal police had also advised him to stay at home. “There were some threats,” Rocha said.
He said that the party had received numerous reports of irregularities and problems in voting machines, some of which had been filmed, and that a group of researchers the party is working with will examine all of them.
“The Brazilian electronic system has never been tested from A-Z in a dynamic way,” Rocha said. The results of this investigation will be presented to the media, he said.
Though the room was set up with 15 name places, less than half of this number have turned up to the press conference, including the party president. Bolsonaro isn’t here, nor are his sons or his wife.
Bolsonaro will not appear tonight, his team have said, due to health reasons.
Bolsonaro's party president, Bebianno, saying Bolsonaro won't speak again here due to health conditions. Says PSL party will investigate possible fraud pic.twitter.com/8QjHfsMgW3
— David Biller (@DLBiller) October 8, 2018
The presidential race was just one thing that voters cast their ballots for today, there were also votes for Congress, the Senate and for state governors.
Rachel Glickhouse has news that today’s election will mean the first Indigenous woman ever has been elected to Congress. No Indigenous person has served in the lower house in more than 30 years.
Good but also super depressing news: After today’s election, Brazil’s lower house of Congress will get its first ever indigenous female representative. The last time an indigenous person served in the lower house was 36 years ago. https://t.co/SAXoKieqAa
— Rachel Glickhouse (@Riogringa) October 8, 2018
Updated
Tom Phillips has this recap of Bolsonaro’s Facebook Live broadcast, in which the candidate suggested he would have won the first round vote outright were it not for the electronic voting system.
“We have received many complaints of [electronic] voting systems that have had problems,” he said. “There have been many, innumerable complaints.”
Bolsonaro described the first round as “a great victory” but added: “You can be sure that if this problem hadn’t happened ... we would already have decided the name of the future president of the Republic today. We can’t falter. What is at stake is our freedom.”
“I’m certain we will emerge victorious,” he said. Bolsonaro said there were now two paths on offer: his path of “prosperity, freedom, family and God” or “the path of Venezuela”.
“Our country is on the verge of chaos. We can’t take any more steps to the left.”
It looks like Bolsonaro’s press conference is about to begin.
'We will unite our people' – Bolsonaro
Flanked by his economics expert Paulo Guedes and wife Michelle, doing sign language, Bolsonaro said he would unite Brazil in a Facebook Live.
“We will unite our people. United we will be a great nation. Nobody has the potential we have,” said Bolsonaro.
But he suggested environmental protection could be reduced. “We want an end to the industry of fines of Ibama and the Chico Mendes Institute,” he soas, citing Brazil’s environment agency and the government body that protects reserves.
And he warned of a fractious run off vote, saying the Workers’ Party has more money because of graft.
“The second round won’t be easy, they have billions to spend, you know that,” he said.
'We start the campaign for victory tomorrow' – Haddad
Fernando Haddad, who is sitting on 28.2% of the vote, has been tweeting. He thanked his family, his party and former president Lula, who is in prison for 12 years on corruption charges, for “your greatest leadership”.
Haddad said the campaign to defeat Bolsonaro in the second round begins tomorrow.
“We want to unite Brazil. It’s a different election than any of the others.”
Haddad says the election has put a lot at stake and he wants to face this debate “with a lot of respect, with a single weapon: the argument” and has vowed to “keep the bridges of the dialogue open”.
“We will defend Brazil and its people, especially the poorest people. I’ve always been on the side of freedom and democracy. I’m not going to give up my values.”
Haddad hinted at some kind of second round alliance tweeting that he wants to “keep the dialogue open” and had already spoken to three of the other candidates – Marina Silva, Ciro Gomes and Guilherme Boulos.
Updated
Earlier I posted about a meme shared by pro-Bolsonaro supporters which calls the northeast corner of Brazil, which voted overwhelmingly for Haddad over Bolsonaro, “Venezuela”, in a dig at the region for being communist.
In contrast with that meme, a leftist meme has emerged using the same map, which has the northeast Brazilian states coloured red, and the quote: “World! It’s not our fault!”
We have video from the incident earlier in the evening when Bolsonaro supporters marched reporters from the TV station Globo – Brazil’s biggest network – down the street and away from the crowd.
The footage shows that as the crowd expelled the television crew they chanted “Communists!” – a charge that has commentators bewildered – and which shows the stark divisions in Brazilian society that have become starkly apparent throughout this election campaign.
Video of Bolsonaro supporters expelling TV Globo crew today while chanting: “Communists!” That’s right - calling TV Globo communists. https://t.co/9sWSZgKftO
— Dom Phillips (@domphillips) October 8, 2018
Path to stopping Bolsonaro 'looks almost impossible' – analysis
Tom Phillips has been speaking to Brian Winter, a Brazil expert and the editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly, who thinks Bolsonaro supporters will be feeling a “small taste of defeat” having just missed out on a first round victory.
But ultimately “this was a very strong result” for the man who is now far and away the favourite to become Brazil’s next president.
“Bolsonaro had colossal support in places like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, throughout the south and centre-west and it makes him just a huge favourite to win in three weeks,” says Winter.
“The path for Haddad to close that gap looks almost impossible ... If you simply add Bolsonaro plus two-thirds of [fourth-placed candidate] Geraldo Alckmin’s votes, it’s over. After the result today it’s so easy to imagine how he’ll get to 50%, in the second round.
“This idea that Bolsonaro can save the country and make it safe for people to walk on the streets at night and tend the corruption in Brasilia and make a dent in 13m unemployed – that’s an idea most Brazilians now seem to have bought.”
Ninety-seven percent of the vote has now been counted, putting Bolsonaro at 46.5% of the vote, with his nearest competitor Fernando Haddad at 28.5%.
Dom Phillips is in place at the Windsor Barra hotel near Bolsonaro’s house in Rio de Janeiro awaiting a press conference from the candidate. He writes:
The lineup for Bolsonaro’s press conference has 15 place names. There are two generals – Bolsonaro’s running mate Hamilton Mourão and Augusto Heleno, who has been working on government proposals. Bolsonaro’s lawmaker sons Carlos, Flávio and Eduardo. Televangelist Silas Malafia and another evangelical pastor Magno Malta, who lost his senate seat.
There is just one place set aside for a woman – Bolsonaro’s wife Michelle who has been doing sign language for his Facebook Lives.
We are still waiting for the press conference to begin.
Globonews is reporting that 29% of people voted with blank or spoiled ballots, or didn’t show up to vote – a higher percentage than the number who voted for Bolsonaro’s main competitor Fernando Haddad.
Brazil heading for second round vote on 28 October
With 96% of the vote counted, Bolsonaro is still just short of the required 50% that would mean he avoided a second-round run-off.
Bolsonaro, who received more than 46 million votes, will face off against Haddad in a second round vote on 28 October.
#ResultadoTSE nas #Eleições2018
— TSE (@TSEjusbr) October 7, 2018
Apuração para Presidente às 20h45:
Bolsonaro, 46,8%; Haddad, 28,2%; Ciro, 12,5%; Alckmin, 4,8%; Amôedo, 2,6%; Daciolo, 1,24%; Meirelles, 1,21%; Marina, 1%; Alvaro Dias, 0,8%; Boulos, 0,5%; Vera, Eymael, João Goulart, 0%.
94,4% urnas apuradas.
With 94.4% of the vote counted, Bolsonaro has 46.8% of the vote to Haddad’s 28.2%.
This is a resounding, but not outright victory for Jair Bolsonaro, falling short of the majority required to avoid a second-round run-off. These results mean Bolsonaro, who received more than 46 million votes, and Haddad will face off for the presidency on 28 October in a second round vote.
The result comes after a campaign our Latin America correspondent Tom Phillips describes as: “as improbable and electrifying as any Brazilian telenovela – although infinitely more consequential”. And there are fears that the next few weeks, as the country prepares to vote again, will be even more dramatic.
“The next few weeks are just going to be crazy … the country is just going to divide even more,” predicted Monica de Bolle, the director of Latin American Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Updated
Our reporter Dom Phillips is in place outside the Windsor Barra hotel right beside Bolsonaro’s house in Rio de Janeiro awaiting a press conference from the candidate. We have had no indication of when that might begin but are ready to give you updates when it does.
Carol Pires, who writes for the New York Times, says she has received a meme on a pro-Bolsonaro Whatsapp group showing the way some of Bolsonaro’s supporters see Brazil in light of the election map, in which the northeast of the country fell to the leftist Workers’ Party, led by Haddad.
Recebi um primeiro meme de um grupo de whatsapp bolsonarista. Foi dada a largada para o segundo turno. pic.twitter.com/uRSJ0rfmow
— Carol Pires (@pirescarol) October 7, 2018
We’re almost there! We now have 92.5% of the vote counted and Bolsonaro is at 47%, Haddad is at 27.9%
#ResultadoTSE nas #Eleições2018
— TSE (@TSEjusbr) October 7, 2018
Apuração para Presidente às 20h30:
Bolsonaro, 47%; Haddad, 27,9%; Ciro, 12,5%; Alckmin, 4%; Amôedo, 2,6%; Daciolo, 1,24%; Meirelles, 1,22%; Marina, 1%; Alvaro Dias, 0,8%; Boulos, 0,5%; Vera, Eymael, João Goulart, 0%.
92,5% urnas apuradas.
Bolsonaro supporters celebrate – in pictures
Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro took to the streets to celebrate. Their candidate has won a resounding victory in the first round of voting but looks like he will fall just short of the 50% of the vote required to secure the presidency in the first round, meaning a second round of voting will take place later this month.
As news that a second round of voting looks inevitable, our reporter Dom Phillips said the mood quietened among Bolsonaro supporters, but many still found a lot to celebrate.
With 87.9% of the vote counted, Bolsonaro’s vote is continuing to slip slightly, confirming it is very unlikely he will reach a majority in the first round. The results so far are:
Bolsonaro – 47.3%
Haddad – 27.5%
Ciro – 12.4%
Alckmin – 4.9%
#ResultadoTSE nas #Eleições2018
— TSE (@TSEjusbr) October 7, 2018
Apuração para Presidente às 20h15:
Bolsonaro, 47,3%; Haddad, 27,5%; Ciro, 12,4%; Alckmin, 4,9%; Amôedo, 2,6%; Meirelles, 1,22%; Daciolo, 1,22%; Marina, 1%; Alvaro Dias, 0,8%; Boulos, 0,5%; Vera, Eymael, João Goulart, 0%.
87,9% urnas apuradas.
As our correspondent Tom Phillips notes, the Bolsonaro camp has been laying the groundwork for months to question the election result, should it turn out to be unfavourable.
Tom writes that when he interviewed Bolsonaro’s son in April, Eduardo said the only thing that would stop his father winning in the first round was if the vote was rigged.
“My only fear is the electronic voting machine,” Eduardo Bolsonaro told me. “As we say around here, there’s a dog in the that there forest,” he said.
The Bolsonaros have been paving the way to question election results for months. When I interviewed his son, Eduardo, in the Amazon in April this is what he said: https://t.co/bTUnpwQb3b pic.twitter.com/esZ9xZb6GZ
— Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) October 7, 2018
Updated
A key Bolsonaro supporter has called on voters to take to the streets to protest the “fraud” of the election, even before a second vote has taken place.
“These videos we’ve seen of scams in the polls are just the tip of the iceberg,” wrote Flavio Morgenstern on Twitter.
Bolsonaro had previously said he would not accept any election result except a victory.
Influential Bolsonaro supporter@already beating the “fraud” drum if JB falls short of 1st round victory https://t.co/m3D28pqrl5
— Brian Winter (@BrazilBrian) October 7, 2018
Is Bolsonaro really a tropical Trump?
It looks like Jair Bolsonaro will win a convincing lead in today’s election, but will fall short of the majority required to secure a first-round victory. So who is the man who become Brazil’s next president are are comparison’s with Donald Trump justified?
Bolsonaro revels in the comparison to the United States commander-in-chief. “I’m a Trump admirer,” he told the Guardian earlier this year. His fondness for Twitter, on which he has 1.58 million followers, and his propensity for making rambling yet oddly engrossing speeches has also invited comparisons to the US president.
Many, however, see Egypt’s hardline president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi or the Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte as more appropriate parallels.
Like Duterte, who recently admitted his only sin was extrajudicial killings, Bolsonaro has vowed to rain hellfire down on the criminals he blames for Brazil’s killing crisis. “There are certain types of people who aren’t humans – they should be treated as hoodlums and crooks,” he told reporters earlier this year.
James N Green the director of Brown University’s Brazil Initiative, said he saw Bolsonaro as being both more erratic and more ideological than the US president.
“Bolsonaro is much more of a wild card than Trump is,” he says.
“Bolsonaro’s only claim to fame is his ability to say horrible things about people, and to insult people and to provoke people. I don’t even want to imagine what that is going to be like [if he wins].”
Updated
With 79% of the vote counted, Bolsonaro is on 48% of the vote, Haddad has 26.7%.
Tom Phillips writes that Bolsonaro’s vote slowly dropping suggests the exit poll, which put support for Bolsonaro at 45%, is more or less on the money
79% das urnas apuradas
— Blog do Noblat (@BlogdoNoblat) October 7, 2018
Jair Bolsonaro
PSL
48,03%
40.511.138 votos
Fernando Haddad
PT
26,74%
22.554.282 votos
Ciro Gomes
PDT
12,37%
10.435.146 votos
Geraldo Alckmin
PSDB
5,05%
‘The second round will be fiercer’
Dom Phillips reports that it is starting to sink in among Bolsonaro supporters outside the candidate’s home, that he may not win an outright first-round victory. He writes:
Glued to their cellphones as results poured in, the crowd quietened as people began to think a first-round result might not happen after all.
“Damn, 48%,” said Washington Silva, 66, a retired Air Force colonel with a beer and a cigarette.
“The second round will be fiercer,” Silva said “More aggression.”
Loud pop music began blaring Bolsonaro jingles from a sound system. But while flags kept waving, the mood quietened.
Updated
A correction to an earlier blog post: I wrote that to win a majority in the first round, a candidate needed 51% of the vote, that should have been 50% plus one vote. Apologies for that.
Results are beginning to come in from the north-east of the country, where the Workers’ Party and Lula, the former president currently serving 12 years in jail on corruption charges, have traditionally been strong. In these areas, Haddad is ahead of Bolsonaro, by as much as 40 points.
Much of Haddad’s support is concentrated in northeast Brazil, which is often slower to report electoral results, which may partly explain the difference in the results between the vote that has been counted so far, which puts Bolsonaro on 49%, and the exit poll, which put support for him at 45%.
As expected, Fernando Haddad winning almost all the states of the north-east, where Lula and Workers' Party have traditionally been strong. It is the only region where he is ahead of the far-right candidate.#Eleicoes2018 pic.twitter.com/1f8jDzYNNd
— Andrew Downie (@adowniebrazil) October 7, 2018
Updated
Dom Phillips is outside Jair Bolsonaro’s home in Rio de Janeiro where a large crowd has gathered to hear the election results.
When exit poll results were announced, putting Bolsonaro well ahead of Haddad (with 45% of the vote to Haddad’s 28%), the crowd celebrated, chanting “Lula thief!” and “Yes to him!”
Fireworks streaked the sky, the smell of barbecue smoke from street vendor filled the air and a line of riot police adjusted their protective clothing.
Supporters remained confident of a first-round win despite an IBOPE exit poll showing Bolsonaro with 45%.
“Champion in first round. Bolsonaro is a legend,” said Thiago Xavier, 30, who works in real estate, pointing out that 49% of around half the votes cast so far were for Bolsonaro.
“It will be first round. First,” said Priscila Lucas, 25, a pharmacy assistant who had traveled out to this suburb from central Rio with her son João, 3. Both wore yellow Brazil shirts.
Things are moving fast here and 68% of the vote has already been counted. It looks like Bolsonaro is just going to miss out on the 50% of the vote he needed to win a majority in the first-round and secure a first-round victory, which means he and Haddad will face off again in a second round of voting on 29 October.
Updated
Our Latin America correspondent Tom Phillips writes that Brazilian media are reporting similar results to those from the exit poll, putting Bolsonaro on 48.9% and Haddad on 26.3%.
Brazilian media reports that with 57% of votes counted, Jair Bolsonaro is on 48.9% versus Haddad's 26.3%. More or less in line with exit poll. pic.twitter.com/OgfD3PEfxb
— Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) October 7, 2018
Exit polls are saying that with 53% of votes counted, Bolsonaro has 49%, Haddad 26%. Bolsonaro needed 51% of the vote to secure a first-round victory and avoid going to a second round of voting in a few weeks.
Dom Phillips reports that outside Bolsonaro’s house the crowd are chanting “first round” and a row of riot police have set up at the scene.
The far-right, pro-gun, minority-bashing Brazilian populist, Jair Bolsonaro, appears to have secured a resounding victory in the first-round of his country’s presidential election after surviving a near-fatal assassination attempt, but has fallen just short of the majority required to avoid a second-round run-off.
After a race as improbable and electrifying as any Brazilian telenovela – though infinitely more consequential for the future of Latin America’s largest democracy – an exit poll conducted by the Brazilian pollster Ibope suggested Bolsonaro had secured 45% of votes.
The runner-up, the leftist Workers’ party candidate, Fernando Haddad, secured 28% of the vote. The two men will now face off for the presidency on 28 October.
Exit poll – Bolsonaro wins 45% of the vote
Exit poll results have just been released, they give Bolsonaro 45% of the vote, meaning he is short of an outright first round victory and there will be a second round of voting on 28 October.
EXIT POLLS ARE OUT: BOLSONARO 45%, HADDAD 28%, CIRO 14%. THERE WILL BE A SECOND ROUND ON 28 OCTOBER.
— Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) October 7, 2018
An interesting thing to keep an eye on as results come out are the breakdown of votes along gender lines.
Though he is in the lead, Bolsonaro is the candidate with the biggest discrepancy between his male and female vote, not only in this election, but in the history of Brazil.
Polls from a month ago showed that 49% of women in Brazil oppose Bolsonaro’s candidacy, compared with just 37% of men and in some states Bolsonaro has 75% less support among women than men.
This could be related to the fact that the far-right candidate has previously called women idiots, tramps and unworthy of rape.
Over the last few weeks more than 2.5 million women have joined a Facebook campaign to stop Bolsonaro from becoming president, called Mulheres Unidas Contra Bolsonaro or Women United Against Bolsonaro.
A Brazil-based reporter for US radio station NPR reports that journalists are being harassed by Bolsonaro supporters. She said she was grabbed while reporting and saw the crowd force reporters for Brazilian free-to-air TV station Rede Globo, forced down the block earlier in the evening.
Years of reporting in Brazil. First time my body has ever been grabbed while reporting: now, at a Bolsonaro rally. The crowd backed Globo reporters down the block shortly before.
— Catherine Osborn (@cculbertosborn) October 7, 2018
Early results suggest bigger Bolsonaro vote than expected
Tom Phillips, the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, has been talking to Monica de Bolle, the director of the Latin American Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University about early exit polls results.
The early exit poll results we are seeing suggest much higher support than expected for candidates linked to Jair Bolsonaro and an electoral drubbing for candidates linked to the leftist Workers’ party (PT).
“It is surprising to see in Minas Gerais, in Rio and in Sao Paulo, all the Bolsonaro supported candidates or the ones who have expressed support for him, having this apparently huge showing. And at the same time the PT basically imploding,” said de Bolle.
“These are all very partial results and I don’t want to say too much because the one sense that I always had with these elections was that they were going to be extremely volatile and everything would be decided very last minute.
“ We still don’t know what the exact results are … so it’s hard to make a case one way or the other. But the indications certainly seem to point to much bigger Bolsonaro support than was expected and that he might win in the first round. I think would be really terrible for Brazil. But that is likely where we are heading. That’s what it looks like to me right now.”
Met police were called in to disperse a crowd, reported to be Bolsonaro supporters, outside the Brazilian embassy in London at around 7pm local time after they received reports of people banging on the windows.
Journalist Sérgio Utsch said the group were Bolsonaro supporters demanding the election results.
British police reportedly called in to control Jair Bolsonaro supporters banging on the windows of Brazilian embassy in London to demand results... https://t.co/xE4oMMwGBA
— Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) October 7, 2018
Police told the Guardian’s Patrick Greenfield that officers attended the incident near Trafalgar Square and asked the crowd to leave. The Met said no arrests were made.
Updated
There has been consternation today at reports that Bolsonaro supporters have been taking photographs of themselves with guns at polling stations, which Brazil-based reporters say is an electoral crime.
Alguns eleitores de Jair Bolsonaro (PSL) estão levando para a cabine de votação armas de fogo. Além disso, ainda fotografam e gravam vídeos dos revólveres, caracterizando crime eleitoral. #Eleições2018https://t.co/X3QIe7W7Pn
— Mídia NINJA (@MidiaNINJA) October 7, 2018
Outside Bolsonaro’s home in Rio, Dom Phillips, spoke to Bernardo Arantes, 20, a law student and Bernardo Gorini, 19, who is soon to start flying school. They both posed showing the “gun gesture” Bolsonaro and his supporters use.
“We are in favour of arms possession for good citizens,” Arantes said. “You know what crime levels are like. Freeing up arms possession means good citizens can protect themselves,” said Gorini.
Here’s more from outside Jair Bolsonaro’s house, from our reporter Dom Phillips, where a group of men are expressing their support for the man who may soon be declared the next president of Brazil by performing push-ups.
João Lopes, 20, was among a group of two dozen men who performed push-ups in unison, before leaping up and chanting: “Legend! Legend!” The bricklayer’s assistant said the idea was “to do something different, to call attention and to put on social media.”
Lopes likes Bolsonaro’s military background. “I like the confidence he puts across,” he said. “People are scared to put their hands up with this crisis we are going through. He has a firm hand.”
Scene outside Bolsonaro’s house. These supporters are celebrating having just done press ups together and are chanting “myth!” pic.twitter.com/iz5iHCZCOI
— Dom Phillips (@domphillips) October 7, 2018
Our reporter Dom Phillips is out the front of Jair Bolsonaro’s house in Rio de Janeiro where the atmosphere is full of excitement, as supporters anticipate their candidate will be declared the next president of Brazil in a matter of hours. He writes:
Less than half an hour before polls closed, a few hundred supporters were gathered in front of the beachfront condominium in the upscale Barra da Tijuca where Jair Bolsonaro lives. Green and yellow Brazil flags were strung between two trees and passing cars beeped noisily.
Earlier in a nearby five star hotel, a line of black clad security guards queued up to work at a press conference nobody was sure would happen or not. Last night Bolsonaro has said he definitely would not do one, a spokesman told The Guardian. But on Sunday morning that changed to “maybe”.
Bolsonaro supporters singing Brazil’s national anthem outside his house. pic.twitter.com/zgQlxph8PL
— Dom Phillips (@domphillips) October 7, 2018
Felipe Avenino, 26, and his wife Gabriela, 26, drove 40 minutes from São João de Meriti to commemorate with Bolsonaro supporters outside his house, wearing matching T-shirts they picked up yesterday. They like his proposal to put generals and an astronaut in cabinet positions and tough approach to crime. “He has to win,” said Felipe.
Updated
One of Brazil’s most prominent political journalists, Ricardo Noblat, is now reporting that presidential exit polls (which are due out in about 40 minutes) will suggest a first round victory for the far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro.
A pesquisa Ibope de boca urna deverá confirmar a eleição de Bolsonaro em primeiro turno. pic.twitter.com/Sic9GYpyHF
— Blog do Noblat (@BlogdoNoblat) October 7, 2018
Our Latin America correspondent Tom Phillips says if this is the case, it would be “an absolutely stunning development”. The exit poll is set to be released in just over an hour.
Who are the candidates?
In the lead to become Brazil’s next president is Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right, dictatorship-admiring, former paratrooper. He has vowed to “change the destiny of Brazil” by blocking the return of the Workers’ Party (PT), the party of jailed former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro was taken to hospital in a serious condition a month ago after he was stabbed while at a campaign event. He is sitting at about 32% in the polls.
Behind Bolsonaro in the polls is Fernando Haddad, a former São Paulo mayor and 55-year-old intellectual. He took over as the PT candidate after Lula was ruled ineligible to run, due to the fact he is in jail. Haddad is promising a return to the days of economic boom enjoyed under Lula, who was president from 2003 to 2011.
Also running, though unlikely to catch up, are Ciro Gomes, Geraldo Alckmin and Marina Silva, who have all pitched themselves as sensible centrists who want to unite the profoundly divided country.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the results of today’s elections in Brazil, in which nearly 147m people were expected to have gone to the polls to choose a new president, state governors, senators and lawmakers in what some have called the most important election in Brazilian history.
Today’s election follows what has been an astonishingly dramatic campaign, in which the former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was leading the polls, was ruled ineligible to run due to the fact he is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence. And then the far-right candidate, who took the lead in the polls after Lula was disqualified, was stabbed at a campaign event.
It’s been a wild and unpredictable campaign. I’ll be bringing you updates of election results and responses from candidates as events unfold tonight. Follow the liveblog for updates and if you have any tips or questions for the blog, please get in touch with me at kate.lyons@theguardian.com or on Twitter @mskatelyons
Make sure to follow our Latin America correspondent Tom Phillips, and reporter Dom Phillips, who will be filing updates from the ground through the day.
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