Brazil pauses presidential vote count after Supreme Court extends voting hours

Brazil’s Supreme Court has extended voting hours for the presidential election, prompting the electoral authority to pause the vote count. According to the South China Morning Post, polls were originally scheduled to close at 5 p.m. Brasilia time but will now close at 7 p.m. following a request by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s campaign.

Supreme Justice Cristiano Zanin accepted the request, citing public transport issues in three cities within the state of Bahia. The Rio Times reports that voting was extended to 6 p.m. ET in every state, causing the runoff count to pause at 4:20 p.m. ET.

The election is a contest between the leftist President Lula and right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of convicted former President Jair Bolsonaro. The South China Morning Post notes that the vote count had already begun publishing early results before the pause, showing Lula leading Bolsonaro by 0.25 per cent with 57.66 per cent of the votes compared to 42.34 per cent for Bolsonaro.

Brief written by urgent.news from Channel News Asia, South China Morning Post, The Rio Times — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.