Brazil's presidential election too close to call

RIO DE JANEIRO — President Jair Bolsonaro and challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva were very close in Brazil’s runoff presidential election Sunday after 78% of the votes had been tallied. The election pits an incumbent vowing to safeguard conservative Christian values against a leftist former president promising to return the country to a more prosperous past.

Da Silva has 50.2% compared with 49.8% for Bolsonaro, according to the country’s election authority.

Polls closed at 5 p.m. (4 p.m. EDT) nationwide. Because the vote is conducted electronically, initial results are out quickly and final results are usually available a few hours later. Bolsonaro had been leading throughout the first half of the count and, as soon as da Silva overtook him, cars in the streets of downtown Sao Paulo began honking their horns. People in the streets of Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema neighborhood could be heard shouting, “It turned!”

In the first round of voting, on Oct. 2, the first half of votes tallied likewise showed Bolsonaro ahead, with da Silva pulling ahead later after votes from his strongholds were counted. Both men are well-known, divisive political figures who stir passion as much as loathing.

The vote will determine if the world’s fourth-largest democracy stays the same course of far-right politics or returns a leftist to the top job — and, in the latter case, whether Bolsonaro will accept defeat. There were multiple reports of what critics said appeared attempts to suppress turnout of likely voters for da Silva, who was president from 2003-2010.