Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro won the first round of Brazil’s presidential elections on Sunday, Reuters reported. Bolsonaro, who received 46% of votes, will face leftist candidate Fernando Haddad in the second round on October 28.

Haddad secured 29% of votes in the first round. A candidate needs 50% or more to win the elections outright.

Meanwhile, Bolsonaro’s supporters protested outside the national electoral tribunal in Brasilia, claiming fraud in the polls, AFP reported. In his victory speech, Bolsonaro, the candidate of Social Liberal Party, told citizens to take the “path of prosperity, liberty, family on God’s side”. He also echoed Trump when he called on his social media followers to “make Brazil great”. “Let us be proud of our homeland once again,” The Guardian quoted him as saying.

The 63-year-old is a former Army captain whose divisive comments have drawn the ire of liberals and increased his support among right-wing voters. In September, Bolsonaro was stabbed during a rally in Minas Gerais by a man who appeared to be “mentally ill”.

He is scheduled to face trial in the Supreme Court for allegedly inciting hate and rape. Bolsonaro has promised to encourage police to kill suspected drug gang members and other armed criminals with abandon if elected to power and has gone on record to praise Brazil’s history of military dictatorship. </s> SAO PAULO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil’s presidential election will go to a second-round runoff between right-wing Congressman Jair Bolsonaro and leftist rival Fernando Haddad, pollster Datafolha projected, based on an analysis of initial results from Sunday’s vote.

With 87 percent of voters counted, Bolsonaro has won 47 percent of valid ballots, far more than Haddad’s 28 percent but not enough to clinch the race with a majority of first-round votes, according to Datafolha. </s> Jair Bolsonaro, the right-wing Brazilian Congressman, is headed toward a second-round runoff against leftist former Sao Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad, according to early results in Sunday's presidential election.

With 79 percent of votes counted, Mr Bolsonaro had received 48 percent of valid votes, far ahead of Mr Haddad's 27 percent but short of the outright majority needed to avoid an October 28 runoff.

Much of the support for Mr Haddad, the stand-in for jailed ex-President Luiz Inacio da Silva, is concentrated in northeast Brazil, which is often slower to report electoral results.

Many analysts thought Mr Bolsonaro would win the first round of voting but face a runoff between the two top vote-getters which he would he lose. A first round win was considered a long shot at best in a country where big parties and the public campaign financing and free ad time they command hold sway.

But little in this election has gone to plan, and Mr Bolsonaro's strong showing reflects a yearning for the past as much as a sign of the future. The candidate from the tiny Social and Liberal Party made savvy use of Twitter and Facebook to spread his message that only he could end the corruption, crime and economic malaise that has seized Brazil in recent years. </s> BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil’s presidential election will be decided in a run-off between right-winger Jair Bolsonaro and leftist Fernando Haddad, the president of the country’s top electoral court said on Sunday.

Bolsonaro obtained 46.7 percent of the votes in Sunday’s first-round vote, and Haddad got 28.37 percent. The run-off between the two top vote-getters is required when no candidate wins a majority. The vote will be held on Oct. 28. </s> Brazil presidential candidates have failed to avoid runoff, IBOPE exit polls revealed with Jair Bolsonaro and Fernando Haddad reaching the vote.

Jair Bolsonaro, a candidate for Brazil’s presidency came on top in Sunday’s vote and will face off with his rival Fernando Haddad in the runoff, exit polls and preliminary official results show.

With 53.93 percent of ballots counted, Bolsonaro was leading in the race with 49.02 percent of the vote. Fernando Haddad of the Workers’ Party was second with 26.09 percent, the electoral committee said.

After 86 percent of ballots counted Bolsonaro remained in the lead with 47.6 percent of the vote Haddad, of the Workers’ Party, fell behind with 27.24 percent of the vote.An exit poll by Ibope suggested Bolsonaro would come first with 45 percent of the vote, followed by Haddad with 28 percent. A candidate needs more than 50 percent of votes to avoid a runoff on October 28.

Previously, the data of the Datafolha pollster revealed that Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro extended his lead over rivals as potential support for him in the election had increased from 32 percent to 35 percent since the beginning of the week.

Candidate Fernando Haddad was expected to be supported by 22 percent of the voters. The poll was held on Wednesday and Thursday among more than 10,000 people in 389 Brazilian municipalities.

READ MORE: Brazil’s Presidential Front-Runner Says Can’t Partake in Debates After Stabbing

The first round of the Brazilian presidential vote was scheduled to take place alongside the parliamentary election on Sunday. The second round is set to be held on October 28. </s> SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil’s Workers Party (PT) presidential candidate Fernando Haddad said on Monday that the runoff race for the country’s top office would pit his party’s history of strong social programs against the neoliberal economic model pushed by far-right rival Jair Bolsonaro.

Haddad made the comments during a news conference streamed on his Facebook page, during which he also said he would seek to rally all “democratic forces” around his campaign to beat Bolsonaro, a former army captain who has long praised the country’s past dictatorship. Bolsonaro won 46 percent of the vote in Sunday’s first-round ballot, while Haddad took 29 percent. </s> Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro widened his lead over fellow election hopefuls a day before Brazilians go to the polls to choose the country's next president.

In DataFolha polling institute's latest poll, published on Saturday, Bolsonaro was projected to win 40 percent of the vote on Sunday.

Fernando Haddad, the leftist Workers' Party (PT) replacement candidate for jailed former president Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, was projected to win 25 percent of support.

Lula topped opinion surveys gauging presidential candidates' popularity levels prior to renouncing his candidacy last month after being barred from running by Brazil's country's top electoral court.

Opinion polls published hours earlier by private-polling firm CNT/MDA suggested Bolsonaro will win 36.7 percent of the vote in the October 7 election. Haddad trailed in second place with 24 percent of voter support.

If none of the 13 candidates competing for the presidency wins more than 50 percent support, a runoff poll between the top two performers will take place on October 28.

A head-to-head vote involving Bolsonaro, a self-styled political outsider, and Haddad remains the most likely scenario, with CNT/MDA data projecting the far-right candidate would win such a poll.

On Saturday, Bolsonaro tweeted that Brazilians no longer "had to choose between options that didn't represent them".

"Now, it is different! We love Brazil, we defend family and the innocence of children, we treat criminals as such and do not involve ourselves in corruption schemes," he said.

Haddad, meanwhile, claimed he was sure he could count on the Brazilian people to win, "vote by vote, until the last minute".

"I don't believe in violence, in the dictatorship, in the lack of liberty. Let's create opportunities, that's how you do politics," he tweeted.

'Confrontation between opposites'

About 147 million people are expected to vote on Sunday, with participation compulsory for "literate" Brazilians aged 18 to 70.

More than 1,650 positions are up for grabs, including most of the seats in Brazil's congress and all 27 state governorships.

Polling stations will be open from 8am local time (11:00 GMT) until 5pm local time (20:00 GMT) and results are expected to be announced close to midnight GMT.

The election takes place amid a period of deep polarisation in Brazilian society, with the two frontrunner candidates also widely despised by many voters.

Ricardo Ribeiro, a political analyst at MCM Consultores, said there was a "lot of fear" among the electorate about a possible second-round showdown between Haddad and Bolsonaro.

"Everyone can see the polarisation at large, which is heightened because on one side you have an extreme right-wing option. I don't think the PT is an extremist party but it is a left-wing party. So, you have this confrontation between two opposites," Ribeiro said.

"The discussion of whether or not democracy can be sustained is now relevant again," he added.





Bolsonaro, a former army captain, has repeatedly spoken out in favour of Brazil's military government, which was in power from 1964-85.

He has promised to fill his cabinet with military generals and his running mate, retired army general Hamilton Mourao, hinted last year that he would be in favour of a military takeover of government if corrupt officials were not dealt with by Brazil's courts.

Bolsonaro has also made numerous overtly discriminatory comments about women, black and homosexual people.

Last weekend, hundreds of thousands of Brazilians took to the streets to march against his candidacy as part of the social media-driven and women-led #EleNao (#NotHim) movement. Thousands of Bolsonaro's supporters also rallied throughout Brazil in response.

Bolsonaro's combative rhetoric and pledges to crack down on Brazil's spiralling violent crime rates have found favour amid a backdrop of converging domestic crises.

Many Brazilians are deeply frustrated with the country's stuttering economy, public security crisis and a political class tarnished by several high-profile corruption scandals in recent years.

'Clean slate'

Ricardo Luis Couto, a taxi driver in Rio de Janeiro, said Bolsonaro would help "change the country".

"The PT are a bunch of robbers, they stole a lot from Brazil, the crisis in Brazil only began after the PT got into office," 46-year-old Couto told Al Jazeera, referencing the corruption scandals which have rocked the party in recent years.

Malena Alberti, a former PT supporter, said she would also turn out for Bolsonaro, who has represented Rio de Janeiro in Brazil's congress since 1991.

"Not only is he a military man, his goal is to preserve family values and to go against spreading communism in schools," 30-year-old Alberti said.

"Bolsonaro is the only one who has a clean slate … he's going after the criminals, he doesn't believe in human rights for them, only for good people … he's in favour of progress and order for the country," she added.

Despite Bolsonaro's rise in popularity in advance of Sunday's vote, he also remains the candidate with the highest rate of rejection among the electorate.

About 44 percent of voters say they would not support him under any circumstances, according to Datafolha.

Haddad's rejection rate stands at about 41 percent, by comparison, a reflection of many voters' distrust of the PT.

Contrasting views

A former mayor of Sao Paulo, Haddad has pledged to "make Brazil happy again" and revive the country's ailing economy by cutting taxes on the poor and creating more employment in a bid to help the nearly 13 million Brazilians currently out of work into jobs.

Pedro Gomes, 63-year-old newspaper stand owner, said he would be voting for Haddad on Sunday as he was "more qualified" than Bolsonaro for the presidency having served as a minister of education under Lula for seven years.

"Haddad is [also] really focused on helping the poorer part of the population, the working class, and bettering education," Gomes said. "[And] I think Bolsonaro is a very conservative person … he's not very respectful."

But for Sheila Xavier, 35, neither of the two frontrunners or any other candidate offer a solution to Brazil's problems.

"I don't know who I'm going to vote for, but I know I'm not going to vote for the PT or Bolsonaro," Xavier, who is currently unemployed, said.

"All the options right now for president say they are going to help provide better education and end violence but nothing actually happens," she added. </s> BRASILIA (Reuters) - Far-right Congressman and former Army captain Jair Bolsonaro won nearly half the votes in Brazil's first-round presidential election on Sunday, marking a major shift to the right in Latin America's largest nation fueled by voters' anger at corruption.

In what is likely to be a deeply polarizing race, Bolsonaro, who has praised Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship, will face leftist Fernando Haddad, the former mayor of Sao Paulo, in a second round of voting on Oct. 28.

Bolsonaro won 46.3 percent of valid ballots, far ahead of Haddad's 29 percent but short of the outright majority needed to avoid an runoff, electoral authorities said.

Bolsonaro, 63, had surged in recent opinion polls on a wave of antipathy towards Haddad's Workers Party, whose leader is serving 12 years in prison after a corruption conviction.

Bolsonaro, who has vowed a brutal crackdown on crime and graft, gained momentum after a near-fatal stabbing at a rally one month ago that kept him from campaigning.

Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro at a campaign rally, moments before being stabbed. Antonio Scorza/Agencia O Globo via AP

Some pundits have dubbed Bolsonaro a "Tropical Trump" because of his large social media following, pugnacious demeanor and multiple wives. He faces federal hate crime charges for racist and misogynist rants.

His commanding lead heading into the second round marks another advance by populist, anti-establishment leaders, who have won power in eastern Europe, the United States and the Philippines.

In his first public remarks celebrating his lead in the vote, Bolsonaro pledged to slash the size of the state, reduce the cabinet to 15 ministries, cut payroll taxes and privatize or shut many state companies.

In video streamed live over social media with economic advisor Paulo Guedes sitting by his side, Bolsonaro said he would have clinched the race with a majority of votes on Sunday if it were not for faulty voting machines. He provided no details.

Bolsonaro's surge in opinion polls prompted a rally in recent days in Brazil's currency and stock market. Many investors want to avoid a return of the leftist Workers Party after the end of its 2003-2016 rule saw the world's eighth-largest economy fall into its worst recession in decades.

Supporters rallying outside his Rio de Janeiro home waved the green-and-yellow national flag, chanting "Our president!" when he returned from voting, accompanied by a nurse, in a convoy of black SUVs.

"Bolsonaro is an example of honesty. Our country needs someone to take tough measures," said civil servant Orlando Senna, who said his uncle served in the army with Bolsonaro.

Senna said he was worried that Bolsonaro's presidential rivals would gang up on him and back Haddad in the runoff.

In Sao Paulo, supporters celebrated on a main avenue with a giant inflatable doll in military uniform depicting Bolsonaro's running mate, retired general Hamilton Mourão.

In the most polarized election since the end of military rule in 1985, Bolsonaro is backed by a group of retired officers like Mourão who have criticized Workers Party governments and publicly advocate military intervention if corruption continues. </s> Brazil's voters cast ballots today in the second round of the nation's presidential election that could see a far-right candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, elected.
Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro falls short of a majority in the first round with 46% of the vote and will face Fernando Haddad, who received 29%, in a runoff vote set for October 28.