MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Polls have closed in Brazil in one of the nation’s most divisive elections in recent history.
Over 156 million Brazilians were eligible to vote.
With just over 50 percent of votes counted so far, right-wing incumbent Jair Bolsonaro has a slim lead of less than one percentage point.
Bolsonaro is fighting off a challenge from former president Luis Ignacio Lula de Silva.
Polls have shown Lula with a slight lead going into Sunday’s second round vote.
Bolsonaro has criticized the country’s electronic voting system and not promised he will accept the results if he loses.
A win for Lula would mean the leftwing takes control of Latin America’s largest economy after a wave of leftwing victories in the region in recent years.
“Lula would probably change things in the areas that Bolsonaro was most radical in,” said Anthony Pereira, Director of the FIU Kimberly Green Latin America and Caribbean Center. “So the environment, public health, education, foreign policy, those would all change under a Lula government.”
Brazilians in South Florida overwhelmingly preferred Bolsonaro during the first round of voting by nearly 60 percentage points.