Brazil Heads to Presidential Run-off After Bolsonaro Edges Lula in First Round

Brazil's high-stakes presidential race is heading to a second round after right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro pulled off a surprise first-place finish in Sunday's first-round vote, defying pre-election polls that had placed incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the lead. Bolsonaro took 47 percent of the vote to Lula's 45 percent, but because neither candidate cleared a majority, the two will face each other again in a run-off on October 25. The contest is playing out against a backdrop of a broad rightward shift across Latin America, a trend that US President Donald Trump has championed. If Bolsonaro prevails in the second round, Latin America's largest democracy would join the steady rightward march seen in recent elections across the region.