Former president and candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expressed confidence in a victory in the Brazilian elections and said the second round will only be an “extension.”
Read more on the subject: Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro dispute the second round of presidential elections in Brazil
“I always thought we would win the elections and we will win the elections. This for us is just a prorogation [extension],” he said at a press conference in São Paulo after the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) released that indicated a contest between him and the current President, Jair Bolsonaro.
The former president said he believes that nothing happens by chance and said that throughout the campaign he was ahead in the polls.
“To the disgrace of some I have 30 more days to go to the street. I love campaigning, I love doing rallies” and “it will be important because it will be a chance for us to have a debate with the President of the Republic. I think it’s a second chance that Bolsonaro gives me,” he said, adopting a confident tone.
Also read: Brazilian election candidates criticize Bolsonaro’s political exploitation of Elizabeth II’s funeral
The former Brazilian president led the polls with a relevant margin and seemed to have a chance of winning in the first round, but the numbers released by the main polling institutes in the country were not confirmed in the polls and the difference between Lula and Bolsonaro stood at around 4.5 percentage points.
Lula da Silva finished with just over 48% of the vote while DataFolha and Ipec polls indicated, respectively, that the candidate had between 50% and 51%. Bolsonaro’s vote was much higher than the same polls, which gave him between 36% and 35%, but he finished with just over 43% of the valid votes.
The more than 156 million voters were called to the polling stations today until 5:00 p.m. Brasilia time (9:00 p.m. in Lisbon), in the 577,125 electronic ballot boxes spread across 5,570 cities in the country.
Read also: Lula has 46% of the vote; Bolsonaro, 31%
In addition to Lula da Silva and Bolsonaro, candidates Ciro Gomes, Simone Tebet, Luís Felipe D’Ávila, Soraya Tronicke, Eymael, Padre Kelmon, Leonardo Pericles, Sofia Manzano and Vera Lúcia contested the first round of the Brazilian presidential race.
Since neither presidential candidate exceeded 50% of the valid votes, Lula and Bolsonaro will face each other again in the second round on October 30.
