• Leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva beats far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro.
• There will be a second round of voting on Oct. 30.
• Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador congratulates Lula on his victory.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a leftist candidate for president of Brazil, came in first in the first round of voting on Sunday, but he didn’t get enough votes to win outright. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador congratulated him.

“Congratulations, Lula, your brother and friend. The people of Brazil once again showed how committed they are to democracy and how much they want equality and fairness “Lopez Obrador, who is also a member of the left, wrote on Twitter.

Earlier the national electoral authority said that after 99.7% of electronic votes were counted, Lula was ahead with 48.4% of votes to Bolsonaro’s 43.3%. Since neither candidate got the most votes, there will be a second round of voting on Oct. 30.

Meanwhile, Before Sunday’s vote, polls showed that the leftist Lula, who was president from 2003 to 2010, was ahead of the far-right Bolsonaro by 10-15 points. Hopes for a quick end to a very divisive election in the world’s fourth-largest democracy were dashed by the much closer result.

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