Brazil’s electronic voting machines are prepared for use at polling stations ahead of the country’s general election. Photo: TSE

NNA News - Brazilians are voting on Sunday in a closely contested general election that will decide the country's next president and the composition of Congress, with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva seeking an unprecedented fourth term. Report compiled by Brasil 247. 

More than 158.7 million voters are eligible to cast ballots in the first round, according to Brazil's Superior Electoral Court, TSE. Voters are also choosing governors, senators, federal deputies and state or district deputies. 

Lula, 80, is seeking another term for the Workers' Party, while Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party is his main challenger. Flávio is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro and has sought to mobilise his father's political base while presenting himself as the candidate capable of returning the Bolsonaro movement to government.

Both leading candidates ended their campaigns on Saturday expressing confidence that they could win without a runoff, despite polling pointing towards a second round. “I am convinced that we are going to win the elections on Sunday,” Lula said at a campaign event in Rio de Janeiro on Friday. He added that there was no reason for a second round if his campaign could secure victory in the first round.

Flávio Bolsonaro also urged supporters to turn out, saying: “I have the conviction also that everything is in place for us to win this election already in the first round. So, let's go out of the house to vote.” He made the remarks during a motorcycle rally in São Paulo state on Saturday.

Recent polls, however, suggest neither candidate is likely to secure the more than 50 percent of valid votes required to win outright. Datafolha and Quaest both showed Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro within a narrow range in the first round, while an MDA survey gave Lula 47.8 percent against 42.1 percent for Flávio among valid votes.

The TSE has sought to reassure voters about the electoral process and urged them to rely on verified information as voting begins. “Tomorrow, all of us have the same commitment: to choose the candidates we consider most capable of leading the destiny of our country,” TSE President Kassio Nunes Marques said in a televised address on Saturday.

He also stressed the authority of voters in the process. “Remember: the decision belongs exclusively to those who vote,” Nunes Marques said.

The TSE has confirmed 158,745,463 registered voters for Sunday's election, with voting taking place from 8 am to 5 pm Brasília time. The election is the country's largest by electorate.

The campaign has been marked by intense political polarisation, corruption allegations, economic concerns and competing views over Brazil's relationship with the United States. Foreign policy has also become an important dividing line, with Lula defending Brazil's diplomatic independence and Flávio Bolsonaro seeking closer relations with US President Donald Trump.

Leonardo Barreto, co-founder of Brazilian political consultancy Think Policy, said the difference between the candidates was particularly visible in their approaches to Washington. “Traditionally our diplomacy is independent. Lula believes that, given the good relationship with China, especially commercially, maintaining this independence is fundamental,” Barreto said.

If no presidential candidate receives more than half of the valid votes, Lula and the second-placed candidate will advance to a runoff on October 25.

The election will also determine all 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 54 of the Senate's 81 seats, alongside the governors of Brazil's 26 states and the Federal District.