• Fwd from @ 📝A Surprise from Pollsters📝 Brazil heads to a runoff The first round of Brazil's presidential election revealed a gap between polls and reality. Contrary to surveys by leading institutes like Datafolha, which consistently predicted victory for incumbent president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, senator Flávio Bolsonaro took first place. The former president's son garnered just over 47% of votes (though many predicted less than 40%) against 45% for Lula. The 2022 scenario repeated itself. Back then, polls forecast a more confident Lula victory, underestimating support for right-wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro. 🖍The densely populated southeast made a key contribution to the right's success. The senator not only won in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, but also took Minas Gerais — the key swing state whose victory historically opens the path to the presidential palace of Planalto. 🔻What about the parliamentary election results? ▪️Flávio Bolsonaro's Liberal Party (PL) achieved a decisive victory in the parliamentary elections, expanding its presence in the Chamber of Deputies to approximately 121 seats out of 513 and forming the largest faction in the lower house. ▪️In the Senate, the right achieved an even more sweeping success, winning more than a third of contested seats and nearly doubling PL representation — to a record 28–29 senators out of 81. ▪️The left-wing bloc of incumbent president Lula's Workers' Party (PT) weakened noticeably in both chambers, guaranteeing conservatives and centrists firm control over Congress regardless of the outcome of the second round of the presidential race. ❗️This result became a painful setback for the left, which lost its favorite status. Now Lula's team must urgently win over the centrist electorate and mobilize record turnout in the swing state of Minas Gerais to try to close the gap by the runoff. 🖼 High-resolution infographic 🖼 English version #Brazil #elections 🔪@rybar_latam — the pulse of the New World 💸Support us Original msg