Brazil extends runoff voting by two hours after bus shortages hit Lula strongholds

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Brazil runoff live updates: voting time extended as Bolsonaro narrowly leads Lula in race for presidency theguardian.com

Brazil's electoral court extended voting by two hours nationwide on Sunday after Lula's campaign alleged that authorities in at least 10 states had restricted voter access to public transportation. Justice Cristiano Zanin granted the extension on a request from the campaign, moving closing time from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM Brasilia time — though some polling stations may already have shut their doors before the order arrived. Early counting put Flávio Bolsonaro narrowly ahead of Lula in the runoff.

The mechanics matter as much as the result. Lula's campaign alleged that bus service had been severely limited in several Lula-leaning cities, and that the shortages amounted to attempted suppression. When the state owns the transit system that carries voters to the polls, whoever sets the Sunday timetable holds a lever over turnout — one that no ballot measure can reach. Lula, who has contested and won more Brazilian elections than anyone alive, told reporters he had never before complained about an election, won or lost. "But this time something abominable is happening."

The stakes cut both ways. No candidate who lost the first round has ever come back to win the presidency since Brazil's return to democracy; Bolsonaro took the first round by two percentage points. Bolsonaro spent the campaign fending off questions about a boat party with prostitutes and vaccine lobbyists during the pandemic, and an 80-year-old incumbent needs history to break its own pattern to stay in office — the same office that appoints the prosecutors who decide whether his rival's scandals become charges.