Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, or Lula, might have come out on top with 48.4 percent of the votes in the first round of Brazil’s presidential election Sunday, but the real winner of the night turned out to be the country’s incumbent president, Jair Bolsonaro. With 43.2 percent of the ballots in his favour, the far-right leader comfortably beat the pre-election polls with an 8-point margin and is now on course to face off with his leftist rival in a nail-biting run-off that few observers saw coming.
Against the odds: Brazil’s Bolsonaro defies polls to force challenger Lula into presidential run-off
<!-- wp:html --><p>Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, or Lula, might have come out on top with 48.4 percent of the votes in the first round of Brazil’s presidential election Sunday, but the real winner of the night turned out to be the country’s incumbent president, Jair Bolsonaro. With 43.2 percent of the ballots in his favour, the far-right leader comfortably beat the pre-election polls with an 8-point margin and is now on course to face off with his leftist rival in a nail-biting run-off that few observers saw coming.</p><!-- /wp:html -->