Polls Close In Brazil’s Polarizing Presidential Runoff Election

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva were very close in Brazil’s runoff presidential election Sunday after 50.9% of the votes had been tallied. The election pits an incumbent vowing to safeguard conservative Christian values against a former president promising to return the country to a more prosperous past.

Bolsonaro has 50.3% compared with 49.7% for da Silva, according to the country’s election authority.

Polls closed at 5 p.m. (2000 GMT; 4 p.m. EDT) nationwide. Because the vote is conducted electronically, initial results are out quickly and final results are usually available a few hours later.

In the first round of voting, on Oct. 2, the first half of votes tallied showed Bolsonaro ahead, with da Silva pulling ahead later after votes from his strongholds were counted. Both men are well-known, divisive political figures who stir passion as much as loathing.

The vote will determine if the world’s fourth-largest democracy stays the same course of far-right politics or returns a leftist to the top job — and, in the latter case, whether Bolsonaro will accept defeat. There were multiple reports of what critics said appeared attempts to suppress turnout of likely da Silva voters.

Voting stations in the capital, Brasilia, were already crowded by morning and, at one of them, retired government worker Luiz Carlos Gomes said he would vote for da Silva.

“He’s the best for the poor, especially in the countryside,” said Gomes, 65, who hails from Maranhao state in the poor northeast region. “We were always starving before him.”

Because the vote is conducted electronically, the final result is usually available within hours after voting stations close in late afternoon. Most opinion polls gave a lead to da Silva, universally known as Lula, though political analysts agreed the race grew increasingly tight in recent weeks.

For months, it appeared that da Silva was headed for easy victory as he kindled nostalgia for his 2003-2010 presidency, when Brazil’s economy was booming and welfare helped tens of millions join the middle class.

But while da Silva topped the Oct. 2 first-round elections with 48% of…