Brazilian presidential election first round vote, Bolsonaro 48.1%, Lula 43.9%... Final vote confirmed

About 90% of votes were counted... Bolsonaro 48%, Lula 44%

(Mexico City = Yonhap News) Correspondent Song Kwang-ho = In the first round of the Brazilian presidential election held on the 4th (local time), it is expected that Senator Flavio Bolsonaro and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will advance to a runoff.

According to the Federal Election Court on this day, with the vote counting rate exceeding 89.58%, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party recorded 48.10% of the vote, beating President Lula of the Workers' Party (PT), who received 43.91%, and is in first place.

As no one received a majority (exceeding 50%) of the votes as initially predicted by public opinion polling agency Datapolya, the two candidates will decide the final winner in a runoff election held on the 25th of this month.

Under Brazilian election law, if no candidate receives a majority of votes in the first round, the top two candidates must hold a runoff election. As a result, the future direction of the next president will be decided in the runoff election on the 25th, three weeks later.