Brazil election: Lula and Bolsonaro to face run-off - BBC

Brazil's election is going into a second round in which left-winger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will face far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.

With almost all the votes counted, Lula had won 48% against Bolsonaro's 43% - a much closer result than opinion polls had suggested.

But Lula fell short of the more than 50% of valid votes needed to prevent a run-off.

But President Bolsonaro and Lula had given their supporters hope that they could achieve just that.

Lula has already said that this is a "mere delay" on his way to the presidency.

And President Bolsonaro, whom opinion polls had shown trailing far behind Lula, will rejoice in the fact that he proved the pollsters wrong, just as he had predicted he would.

In the last TV debate before the vote, President Bolsonaro called Lula a thief, in reference to the corruption charges that put him in jail for 580 days before the conviction was annulled.

Lula says he will bolster measures to protect the Amazon rainforest, while Mr Bolsonaro has argued that parts of the rainforest should be opened up to economic exploitation.

But with Mr Bolsonaro counting on the agricultural sector and agribusiness for votes and support, it is Lula who is the preferred choice of climate activists.

Lula and Bolsonaro face run-off after tight result.