Brazil election - live: World leaders congratulate Lula as he pips Bolsonaro to become president

Lula voted at a school in Bernardo do Campo, in Sao Paulo, where he arrived with his running mate Geraldo Alckmin, and several other members of his team.

A victory for Lula would mark a stunning comeback for the leftist leader, who was jailed in 2018 for 19 months on bribery convictions that the Supreme Court overturned last year, clearing the way for him to seek a third presidential term.

Lula has vowed a return to state-driven economic growth and social policies that helped lift millions out of poverty during a commodity boom when he first governed Brazil.

He also vows to combat destruction of the Amazon rainforest, now at a 15-year high, and make Brazil a leader in global climate talks.

A second term for Bolsonaro would keep Brazil on a path of free-market reforms and looser environmental protections, while cementing a coalition of right-wing parties and powerful farm interests, which bankrolled his campaign.

Brazil is going through the most important presidential election in its history. On 30 October, voters will decide who will be the president of the country with the largest population in South America and the fourth largest democracy in the world, writes James N. Green.

Voters will also determine the success or failure of a new global movement of the populist extreme right that has in the current president, Jair Bolsonaro, its national leader, and in the ex-US president, Donald Trump, its best-known exponent worldwide.

The political phenomenon that Bolsonaro and Trump embody has a fundamental characteristic: using the democratic process and then weakening it so that it becomes unrecognisable and incapable of containing its presidents’ authoritarian excesses.

Brazilians have headed to the polls today to vote in a presidential election featuring two political titans and bitter rivals that could usher in another four years of far-right politics or return a leftist to the nation’s top job.

On one side is incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain who built a base of hardcore support as a culture warrior with a conservative ideology.

He has deployed government funds in what is widely seen as an effort to drum up last-minute votes. His adversary, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has sought to kindle nostalgia for his years presiding over an economic boom and social inclusion.

Here’s what you need to know about the Brazilian presidential runoff:

Pivotal elections in Brazil and the United States will present an early test to Twitter‘s new owner Elon Musk and his promise to ease up on the platform’s policies on misinformation.

Voters in both nations have already faced a torrent of misleading claims about candidates, issues and voting. That torrent could become a deluge if Musk makes good on his vows to roll back Twitter’s rules just as millions of voters prepare to cast a ballot.

“This is the most critical time for this work, right before an election,” said Alejandra Caraballo, an instructor at Harvard Law School‘s Cyberlaw Clinic who has been monitoring the online response to Musk’s purchase. “We’re going to see a test run with the election in Brazil this Sunday, when we’ll see how bad things get.”

Tom Phillips, The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, is reporting allegations in Brazil that the federal highway police are making it difficult for people to vote.

Millions of Brazilians are voting in the most momentous election in the country’s recent history amid great uncertainty over the outcome and deep trepidation about what will unfold in the aftermath.

The latest opinion polls gave Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the left-wing former leader widely known as Lula, a lead of between 4 and 8 per cent over the hard-right president Jair Bolsonaro.

This should, in theory, point towards a slender victory for Lula following a bitter election race filled with accusations and recriminations. The polls, however, played a part in inaccurate predictions that the 77-year old would win in the first round with the backing of more than 50 per cent of the electorate. Officials in his team have been cautious about claiming victory in the presidential run-off.

Kim Sengupta reports for us from Sao Paulo.

The Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which runs Brazil‘s elections, played down reports that the Federal Highway Police (PRF) had conducted illegal roadblocks of buses carrying voters across the poor northeast where Lula’s support is strongest.

Critics allege the PRF has become overtly pro-Bolsonaro, and that officers were seeking to hinder voting in Lula strongholds.

But Alexandre de Moraes, a Supreme Court justice who is also head of the TSE, said no-one had been prevented from voting and all police operations on roads had ceased and would be investigated.

“The only issue for voters was that they were delayed,” Moraes told a news conference.

The PRF did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

Voting is now closed in the presidential runoff election between president Jair Bolsonaro and his political nemesis, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.