Brazilians in Jordan vote for new president

AMMAN — Brazilians living in Jordan on Sunday participated in their country's presidential election in a voting site in the Brazilian embassy in Amman.

According to China News Agency, Xinhua, over half-a-million Brazilians living in foreign countries were expected to vote for a new president

Citing Brazil's superior electoral court, Xinhua said that there are 170 voting sites in Brazilian embassies and consulates all over the world.

Brazilians headed to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president, with candidate Jair Bolsonaro seen as the firm favourite in the first round.

Bolsonaro predicted a first-round victory as he cast his ballot in western Rio de Janeiro, AFP said.
Bolsonaro's nearest rival is former Sao Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad, a stand-in for former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is serving a 12-year sentence for corruption.
Surveys suggest Bolsonaro, who wants to cut spiraling debt through sweeping privatisations and embrace the United States, could count on more than one in three voters in the vast Latin American nation, according to AFP.
Two polls published late on Saturday showed Bolsonaro had increased his lead over Haddad in the past two days, taking 36 per cent of voter intentions compared with Haddad's 22 per cent. The pair are deadlocked in a likely run-off vote on October 28 that is required if no candidate takes a majority of valid votes on Sunday.

Geneis Correa, a 46-year-old business manager in Brasilia, was quoted in Reuters as saying that she voted for Bolsonaro and would support a coup if the leftist Workers Party (PT), blaming the party for rampant corruption.
"If they win, it will become Venezuela, people will be hungry, with a currency that is worth nothing," she said, while exiting a polling station with her daughter.

"If the PT is voted into power and there is a military intervention, I would support it."

In a final appeal for votes on a live Facebook stream on Saturday night, Bolsonaro, 63, called on Brazilians to help him clean up the political system and establish better government of Brazil's rich mineral and agricultural resources.

"We have everything. What we need are politicians who are committed to their country and not to party interests," he said from his home, where he is recovering from a near-fatal stabbing at a campaign rally. He underwent two emergency surgeries and it is not clear how much campaigning he will be able to do if the vote heads into a run*off.

Polling stations opened at 8:00am (1100 GMT) and closed at 7:00pm Brasilia time (2200 GMT). Exit polls and official results will start flowing in soon after that because Brazil uses an electronic voting system.
The 147 million voters will choose the president, all 513 members of the lower house of congress, two-thirds of the 81-member Senate plus governors and lawmakers in all 27 states.
Almost two-thirds of the electorate are concentrated in the more populous south and southeast of Brazil where its biggest cities, Sao Paulo and Rio Janeiro, are located — and where Bolsonaro holds a commanding lead. A quarter of the voters are in the less developed northeast, traditionally a PT stronghold.