Peru

Lima, October 5, 2026. The Peruvian press covered the Brazilian election on Sunday, October 4, mainly through agency dispatches (EFE, Reuters, AFP) reproduced by El Comercio, RPP, Gestión, Andina, and Diario Correo. On voting day, RPP reported that Lula, 80, said he was "confiado" when voting in São Bernardo do Campo: "Estoy seguro de que vamos a ganar estas elecciones." Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, voted in Rio and hoped for "un voto de protesta contra la era de atraso." RPP also recalled the latest Datafolha poll: 45% for Lula, 42% for his rival.

The vote count overturned this picture. Gestión, according to EFE, gave 50.96% to Bolsonaro and 40.78% to Lula with 10% of the ballots. Diario Correo reported 50.94% against 40.97% with 25% of the urns, and El Comercio 50.20% against 41.63%. Correo, citing Reuters, specified that these early figures favored the candidate because the south transmitted faster, while the northeast, where Lula concentrates a significant part of his support, arrived later. The dispatches in the corpus did not give the final result; they confirmed a second round on October 25, due to the lack of an absolute majority.

Andina, also via EFE, read the election as a "consolidación de la derecha" in the regions. Out of 27 states, the Liberal Party elected five governors in the first round, compared to three for Lula's PT. In São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, a former minister of Jair Bolsonaro, won clearly over Fernando Haddad in the most populous state, with 46 million inhabitants. Andina emphasized that Minas Gerais, where Cleitinho Azevedo, from the right, won widely, "suele decidir quién será el próximo jefe de Estado." In Rio, Douglas Ruas, an ally of Flávio Bolsonaro, will face former mayor Eduardo Paes in the second round.

El Comercio placed the campaign in a continental framework: Lula made sovereignty his banner in the face of pressure from Donald Trump, who is extending his influence with right-wing governments in Argentina, Chile, or Colombia. Flávio Bolsonaro, presented as more moderate than his father, promised to "rescatar" Brazil from insecurity. The agencies recalled that Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting a coup and is under house arrest.