The Liberty Daily 
Update 3: With 97.37% of vote sections accounted for, it’s clear that Lula will not get the votes needed to avoid a runoff. President Jair Bolsonaro outperformed polls, most of which leading up to election day had Lula winning outright.
Update 2: With 94.47% of vote sections accounted for, Lula is closing in on the magic number. It stills seems like a runoff is likely, but the final votes being tallied are turning sharply for the challenger.
Update: With just over 82% of the expected vote it, Lula has surged ahead by nearly 2%. It’s still not likely enough to get him over 50% but anything can happen with over 20 million votes left to count.
Original Story:
With approximately 70% of the vote tallied, the race for the presidency in Brazil is headed for a runoff. Neither leftist challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva nor populist incumbent Jair Bolsonaro seem able to break the 50% threshold in the very tight race. As of this writing, less than 200,000 votes out of over 81 million separate the frontrunners. Nearly 9% of the vote has gone to other candidates.
As Just The News reports:
Populist leader Bolsonaro has been endorsed by former U.S. President Donald Trump and former Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. Bolsonaro has been criticized for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and exit polls showed Silva ahead, The Associated Press reported. However, Bolsonaro has also created a devoted base of followers through his support of conservative values.
Strange things seem to happen frequently lately, so there’s a chance Lula or Bolsonaro can surge ahead. We will update this story if either candidate looks poised to break 50%. At this point, we’re calling it as a runoff.
