{"id":472,"date":"2026-10-05T20:00:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T20:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/?p=472"},"modified":"2026-10-05T20:00:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T20:00:59","slug":"brazil-runoff-flavio-bolsonaro-lula-first-round-47-percent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/?p=472","title":{"rendered":"BRAZIL BLOWS UP THE POLLS \u2014 BOLSONARO VS. LULA GOES TO OVERTIME! | The jailed ex-president\u2019s son tops Lula 47.03% to 45.16% \u2014 nobody cracks 50%, so Latin America\u2019s biggest economy gets a three-week cage match ending Oct. 25"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The polls said Lula. The voters said not so fast. Right-wing Senator <strong>Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro<\/strong> won the first round of Brazil\u2019s presidential election Sunday with <strong>47.03%<\/strong> of valid votes to President <strong>Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva\u2019s 45.16%<\/strong>, according to Superior Electoral Court data reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br\/en\/politica\/noticia\/2026-10\/flavio-bolsonaro-lula-head-runoff-brazils-presidential-race\">Ag\u00eancia Brasil<\/a>. Nobody hit 50%, so it\u2019s a runoff on <strong>October 25<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Fl\u00e1vio is the son of former president <strong>Jair Bolsonaro<\/strong>, who is serving a <strong>27-year prison sentence<\/strong> for masterminding a failed coup after losing the 2022 election, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/ck1l34ed592no\">BBC<\/a> reports. Lula had polled slightly ahead during the campaign; the BBC says Bolsonaro\u2019s beat-the-odds showing makes round two \u201chis to lose,\u201d since several knocked-out candidates were right-wingers. His Liberal Party also elected the most governors, senators and federal deputies in results so far.<\/p>\n<p>Lula, 80, didn\u2019t sugarcoat it. \u201cI admit I was convinced I would win in the first round,\u201d he said. \u201cThe game is about to start. We are in extra time. In extra time, we will win over the Brazilian people.\u201d He then went after his rival\u2019s \u201cshadowy background,\u201d citing alleged ties to militias and organized crime, per Ag\u00eancia Brasil.<\/p>\n<p>Bolsonaro, 45, took a victory lap: \u201cNearly 56 million Brazilians\u2026 cast their vote of confidence in change,\u201d he said, promising \u201ca modern government, with fewer ministries\u201d that would appoint at least four Supreme Court justices \u2014 and vowing he\u2019d serve only one term. He has also pledged amnesty for his father and the January 8 rioters if elected, the BBC notes.<\/p>\n<p>The stakes go way past Bras\u00edlia. Most of Latin America has already elected right-wing, Trump-aligned presidents, and the BBC says a Bolsonaro win would likely pull Brazil into the U.S.-led \u201cShield of Americas\u201d anti-narco coalition. Three weeks, two dynasties, one very polarized country.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/ck1l34ed592no\">BBC News<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br\/en\/politica\/noticia\/2026-10\/flavio-bolsonaro-lula-head-runoff-brazils-presidential-race\">Ag\u00eancia Brasil<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The jailed ex-president\u2019s son tops Lula 47.03% to 45.16% \u2014 nobody cracks 50%, so Latin America\u2019s biggest economy gets a three-week cage match ending Oct. 25<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bb-brazil-runoff-1005.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}