BRASILIA/SAO PAULO, Oct 25 (Reuters) – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will win the country’s presidential election, pollster Datafolha projected on Sunday, defeating right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro in a runoff to secure a fourth non-consecutive term.
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With just over 78% of ballots counted, Lula was leading Bolsonaro, son of imprisoned former President Jair Bolsonaro, with 51.21% support to Bolsonaro’s 48.79%.
Pollsters said higher-than-expected turnout appeared to have boosted Lula. Andrei Roman, CEO of pollster AtlasIntel, also told Reuters he expected Lula would be re-elected.
The federal electoral court has yet to call a victor, but Lula allies were already claiming victory on social media.
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Brazil’s conservative candidates typically perform well early in the count, with leftists’ performance improving as votes from poorer, populous states in the northeast start arriving later in the evening.
Lula started strongly, and although Bolsonaro overtook him, Lula retook the lead with about half of votes counted around 8:30 p.m. in Brasilia (2330 GMT).
(Reporting by Oliver Griffin, Luciana Magalhaes and Lisandra Paraguassu in Sao Paulo; Ricardo Brito, Bernardo Caram and Brendan O’Boyle in Brasilia; Marta Nogueira in Rio de Janeiro, Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Writing by Brendan O’Boyle and Oliver Griffin; Editing by Alistair Bell, Christina Fincher, Andrew Heavens, Nick Zieminski and Aurora Ellis)
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