00:10Millions of Brazilians are going to the polls this Sunday in a runoff presidential election
00:14that decides the political future of the country, with President Lula Silva going for re-election
00:20against far-right candidate Flavio Bolsonaro. With this information, let's go live through
00:24Rio with our special envoy Belén de los Santos, who has more details on how the electoral day
00:29has been unfolding in the past couple of hours. Welcome, Belén, once more to From the South.
00:36Hello Luis, I greet you from Botafogo in Rio de Janeiro. You were saying it correctly, the
00:42date is completely underway with the voting at all voting centers. We are in this case in one
00:48of these schools, Santa Ignacio, here in Botafogo. As I was saying before, as you can see, hopefully
00:54you are seeing the images that there is a lot of people coming in and coming out. It is a
01:00quick
01:00voting process today, Luis, here, because as you know, in this runoff there is much less elections,
01:08much less things to choose from than in the first round. Remember that in the first round there were
01:13a lot of positions that were being elected. In this case, it's just the presidential position in this
01:21state. In other states, let's recall, there are five states and the federal district that are also
01:26choosing governor. But in any case, it is a much quicker process. So you can see people coming in and
01:32out. If you spot people with the number 13 and 22, that is because those are the code numbers that
01:42identify each of the candidates. Remember that the voting process here in Brazil is done through an
01:50electronic machine, the electronic ballot and the people, the electors need to put in the number
01:58that identifies the candidate that they are choosing. And those are the numbers that identify them. That's
02:04why you'll see them in stickers, in flags, in the t-shirts. Those are also allowed in the voting centers
02:12as well. As long as they are silent demonstrations of support, they can be doing so. So we are seeing
02:18the people that are coming in and out with their identifications. Important also, we were talking
02:24before about Flavio Bolsonaro voting in the in the Santa Isabel region of Rio de Janeiro earlier today.
02:32Now, Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva has also exercised his right to vote. He did so in Sao Paulo. And
02:39he also
02:39spoke to the press and said that he was so thankful for the population, particularly because of the
02:46intense campaigning both in the streets and in social media during the past weeks. He said that in his long
02:53career in politics since 89, let's recall that it's been really a long process and an enormous
03:01political history for Lula da Silva who's going for the re-election for a fourth mandate. He has never
03:08seen this amount of mobilization and demonstrations of support. So he thanked, of course, the people of
03:15Brazil in line with what he has been doing during the final rallies in the past days. So that is
03:22a little
03:22bit of what is happening over here. Of course, Luis, all the tension is on what is going to happen
03:28after
03:285 pm when voting centers close and we start getting the first results. Belen, you've been there with
03:35alongside the Brazilian people. What are you've been speaking with them? What are their opinions? What are
03:40they looking for in these elections? What are the main concerns and what do they expect their results to be?
03:45what they believe, how things will turn out in the end? Well, of course, first of all, this is an
03:55election, a campaign that is marked by polarization, right? It's what we know from the polling, from the
04:02numbers of the first round as well. So we have a very close race and also a population that is
04:09very much
04:10divided into not only two candidates, but these are two different models in terms of all the major issues
04:19that have to do with the country's development, particularly, for example, here in Rio de Janeiro, security
04:25nationwide, but here in Rio de Janeiro, security is one of the main concerns and it's a main concern
04:31in maybe a different way for both voters, for each of the candidates, because their propositions
04:39in order of how to tackle public security, they both understand that it's a public right, but they
04:45have very different propositions and outlooks into this topic. So while Flavio Bolsonaro and his supporters
04:52is talking about more repression and a higher police control in terms of what they are tackling, they're
05:02talking about, for example, lowering the age of community. And so they have an outlook on criminality
05:12that has to do with greater repression. And on the other side, Lula da Silva, his propositions on
05:18security and also what their supporters are concerned about is that criminality cannot be tackled without
05:25further integration and organization within the forces because that disorganization and also the corruption
05:33that is known in many of the forces that are involved in those operations, for example, against drug
05:40trafficking, drug trafficking organizations that has to do with that situation being ongoing. So it's
05:47more control on the organizations and also on the police brutality that the favelas, for example, face in
05:56particular that they can really tackle the issue of security. One of the topics that we have seen
06:03particularly in Rio de Janeiro in the past days has been the name of Ana Clara. Ana Clara is the
06:09five-year-old
06:10girl that was killed by the police. And actually, Flavio Bolsonaro was the lawyer of the murderer. That is
06:19one of the cases that has been so strong in social media as part of the campaign because it clearly
06:24links
06:25that the far right candidate with the police brutality that is so significant, particularly in Rio de Janeiro
06:33and its favelas. So that is just one of the topics that people are talking and concerned about. And one
06:40of
06:40the demonstrations of how different models are facing each other in the selection risk. Thank you, Belen,
06:47for always the detailed information coming from Rio and everything has to do with this electoral
06:52process. We'll stay in touch in upcoming news brief for more details.
