Bolsonaro favourite to win: What Brazil’s first round of elections tells us

Right-wing Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has exceeded expectations in the first-round vote with a slight lead over the incumbent left-wing President Luiz Inacio ‌Lula da Silva, triggering a run-off later this month. “Brazil wants change, and I am very happy with the results,” Bolsonaro told reporters in Brasilia on Sunday as he saluted “the end of the era of [Lula’s] Workers’ Party”. The 45-year-old ⁠son of right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year jail sentence for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election, now faces an October 25 showdown with the 80-year-old Lula, who is seeking a fourth nonconsecutive term.