Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro Will get Second Shot at Re-Election

Now, Brazil’s presidential election, thought of solely days in the past by pollsters and plenty of analysts to be a shoo-in for Mr. da Silva, is up for grabs, political scientists stated on Monday.

“By the grace of God, I’ve by no means misplaced an election and I do know I gained’t lose this one,” stated Mr. Bolsonaro in a triumphant message to supporters on social media Monday. “We gained in opposition to the mendacity pollsters and now we’ll win the election.”

Whereas Mr. da Silva remains to be a slight favourite to win, the possibility of Mr. Bolsonaro clinching a second time period can’t be disregarded, stated Carlos Melo, a professor of political science at São Paulo’s Insper enterprise college. “The election is extensive open,” he stated.

After Sunday’s vote amongst 11 candidates, Messrs. Bolsonaro and da Silva now face a race in opposition to time to woo voters and forge alliances with centrist events earlier than the second spherical of voting.

Ipec, one among Brazil’s main polling firms, stated it believed many citizens had switched to Mr. Bolsonaro from centrist candidates on the final minute after its closing survey, including that it was constantly working to enhance its methodology. Ipec denied that it had undersampled any specific group in its polls.

Polling agency Quaest stated that its surveys had not too long ago captured rising assist for Mr. Bolsonaro and that it had polled adequately on either side of the political divide.

Brazil’s different predominant polling companies didn’t reply to requests for remark. Political analysts stated outdated census knowledge, an absence of individuals’s cooperation with polling companies and difficulties in accounting for extra socially conservative evangelicals might clarify the polls being off.

Mr. Bolsonaro stated he was already in talks with potential allies for his or her endorsement within the second spherical, together with

Romeu Zema,

the right-wing governor of Brazil’s huge Minas Gerais state, who gained re-election Sunday in state elections.

Scores of different conservative allies of the president swept to victory in congressional and state elections on Sunday, together with in Brazil’s most populous state, São Paulo. These profitable politicians will now be capable to rally assist for the president of their areas.

Mr. Bolsonaro, whose authorities spent generously on handouts and land titles for the poor forward of the vote, did notably nicely in Brazil’s massive southeastern states, equivalent to São Paulo. Whereas polls predicted Mr. da Silva comfortably beating the conservative within the state, Mr. Bolsonaro gained by 7 share factors.

Mr. Bolsonaro, who has tapped into anger over the corruption scandals that landed Mr. da Silva in jail for 19 months till his launch in 2019, additionally got here solely 5 share factors behind Mr. da Silva in Minas Gerais after polls predicted as much as a 21-point lead for the leftist.

However Mr. da Silva stays a formidable opponent. The leftist chief, who got here to energy in 2003 because the nation’s first working-class president, received 57 million votes Sunday—the very best quantity for any Brazilian candidate ever in a primary spherical of voting.

In a defiant message Monday to supporters on Twitter, Mr. da Silva vowed to make alliances throughout the political spectrum to get the votes he wanted. “We’ll discuss to those that you assume don’t like us, and we’ll persuade them,” he stated.

It was a message that additionally happy these in Brazil’s monetary markets Monday, who stated that such a centrist alliance might assist rein in any sharp strikes to the left by Mr. da Silva if elected. Shares in Brazil, which is Latin America’s largest economic system, gained greater than 5% in Monday buying and selling.

His feedback adopted a downbeat speech Sunday after failing to safe the outright victory that he had promised his supporters, calling the end result “only a delay” in his victory.

Mr. da Silva’s public feedback main as much as the elections indicated he thought he would win outright Sunday and keep away from a runoff, and he and occasion leaders gave the impression to be unaware of the date of the Oct. 30 second spherical. They first informed crowds that it will occur on Oct. 28, earlier than a supporter corrected them.

Simone Tebet,

who ranked third on Sunday with 4% of the vote, has indicated she could endorse Mr. da Silva. If all her voters migrated to the leftist chief, that may simply give him the couple of million votes he must win, based mostly on electoral-court knowledge.

Polls had beforehand proven that some 50% of Brazilians would refuse to vote for Mr. Bolsonaro beneath any circumstance, whereas 40% stated the identical of Mr. da Silva. If true, that may make it more durable for the president to win over undecided voters within the weeks forward, however the accuracy of that polling knowledge is now not clear after Sunday’s end result, political scientists stated.

As each candidates started the final stretch of campaigning, pundits turned their anger Monday on the actual loser of Sunday’s elections: pollsters.

“I’m achieved with polls in Brazil for the remainder of this election cycle. All the massive ones have been simply catastrophically mistaken,” stated

Brian Winter,

editor of Americas Quarterly, a nonpartisan journal about Latin America. “The sense of déjà vu as an American who watched the 2016 and 2020 elections is unimaginable. Conservative voters have been undercounted, what a shock. How did we let ourselves get misled once more?”

Political scientists blamed a number of components. An absence of demographic knowledge meant pollsters struggled to precisely calculate assist for candidates. Brazil’s final census was carried out in 2010. There was meant to be one other one in 2020, nevertheless it was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, Mr. Bolsonaro’s authorities minimize funding for the survey, delaying it once more in a transfer that drew criticism from public-policy consultants. The census is just now being carried out throughout Brazil.

That left pollsters with one, notably urgent, query: What number of poor individuals does Brazil have?

With outdated census knowledge and lots of the poorest households working in casual jobs, invisible from many authorities databases, it largely grew to become a guessing sport, stated Rafael Cortez, a political scientist at São Paulo-based consulting agency Tendências.

Provided that Mr. da Silva is hottest amongst poorer Brazilians, the polling companies that typically gave him the most important benefit forward of Sunday’s vote have been people who estimated a better variety of poor individuals within the lowest earnings bracket, usually outlined as those that earn the equal of two minimum-wage salaries or much less—about $450 a month.

“Understanding what faith these individuals have been was even more durable,” stated Mr. Cortez. Mr. Bolsonaro’s social conservatism has gained favor with evangelical Christians, who make up a 3rd of all Brazilians. The polls that underestimated Mr. Bolsonaro’s assist by the most important margin have been doubtless people who additionally underestimated the variety of evangelical Christians among the many poor, stated Mr. Cortez.

Political scientists stated one other issue was that lots of Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters have been reluctant to cooperate with the nation’s polling companies, which the president has characterised as adversaries.

“There appears to be a bunch of individuals, individuals who refused to reply the polls…and this tended to be greater amongst wealthier voters,” stated Renato Meirelles, head of the Instituto Locomotiva, which carries out polls in poor favela communities, however not about voting intentions.

Some voters could have been afraid to voice their assist for a person who has been labeled a assassin by the opposition for his administration of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has killed near 700,000 Brazilians, the second-highest demise toll after the U.S., analysts stated.

In Brasilândia, a neighborhood within the poor northern suburbs of São Paulo, Livia Nunes, 36 years outdated, stated she is conscious her assist for Mr. Bolsonaro makes her an anomaly amongst her neighbors.

“It’s not one thing I focus on, even with family,” she stated. A clerk at a neighborhood photocopying store, she stated she didn’t consider that Mr. da Silva’s proposals to increase authorities advantages for the poor have been very reasonable.

“Who pays the invoice is us, the individuals who work, who pay taxes,” she stated, including that she admired Mr. Bolsonaro for what she stated was his “perseverance within the face of so many assaults.”

Write to Samantha Pearson at samantha.pearson@wsj.com and Luciana Magalhaes at Luciana.Magalhaes@wsj.com