Brazil Elections: Far-right candidate short of outright victory for presidency

World
Europe

03:02

Brazil is heading for a dramatic run-off between far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro and Fernando Haddad of the leftist Workers party. Neither candidate got the majority of 50-percent-plus needed to win. Our correspondent Lucrecia Franco, in Rio, has the story.

Bolsonaro supporters celebrate victory even if their candidate's 46% of the vote wasn't enough to put him over the top in the first round. As he has done before, the candidate himself alleged fraud.

JAIR BOLSONARO PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE "I am certain that if this problem hadn't happened we would already know the name of Brazil's next president."

Bolsonaro will be facing off against Fernando Haddad of the workers' party. Haddad received only 29 percent of the vote, but said a run-off would give voters a reprieve to reflect on the future of Brazil's democracy.

FERNANDO HADDAD WORKERS' PARTY CANDIDATE "The opportunity of a second round that the people gave us is inestimable, especially in 2018, and we need to make the most of it."

Roughly 112 million out of 147 million eligible Brazilan voters cast ballots on Sunday. In a country where voting is mandatory, 29% of voters abstained, left their ballots blank, or voided them. Brazil's deep political divide was evident.

Paula Pimenta, an architect dressed in red, the color of the Workers' party, said she was afraid for her country.

PAULA PIMENTA VOTER "I am voting against Bolsonaro, against the madness he represents and for Haddad, because we need to defend all the rights we have won with the Workers Party."

But Luciano Marinho, a hairdresser wearing a Bolsonaro T-shirt, said he was fed up with politics as usual.

LUCIANO MARINHO VOTER "Life in Brazil is very difficult these days, and that is why I am voting for Bolsonaro, to see if he sweeps away all the corrupt politicians."

Other voters said they were reluctant to disclose how they voted because doing so risked creating problems with their families and their neighbors. Some observers say the country could be set to explode.

MAURICIO SANTORO POLITICAL ANALYST, RIO DE JANEIRO STATE UNIVERSITY "I have never seen Brazilians so angry and so full of hate with each other and what is happening is that Bolsonaro is forcing us to see the real face of Brazil and how that is expressed in violence against minorities and in the very bad things that he is saying and that people are responding to that."

Scenes like this one could be repeated in three weeks during the run-off scheduled on October 28th.

LUCRECIA FRANCO RIO DE JANEIRO "Tensions are likely to rise between now and the decisive vote. What many analysts consider an almost-certain Bolsonaro victory is unlikely to change that, because the two sides are so far apart. Lucrecia Franco, CGTN, Rio de Janeiro."