Brazil's razor-close presidential election: runoff voting extended by two hours

[Financial News] Brazil's presidential runoff, which was scheduled to end at 5 p.m. (local time) on the 25th, was extended by two hours, until 7 p.m. that day.
According to foreign media, including France's Agence France-Presse (AFP), Justice Cristiano Zanin of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court said voting in the presidential election would be extended by two hours beyond the original schedule, until 7 a.m. Korea time on the 26th. Brazil's electoral authorities said preparations for the vote count would be temporarily suspended following the decision to extend voting hours.
Zanin of the Supreme Court said he had made the decision after granting a request to extend voting hours submitted by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (81)'s side. Lula's campaign argued that voting hours should be extended because severe shortages of public transit services for voters in major cities such as São Paulo and Salvador had infringed on their right to vote. Speaking to reporters outside his home that day, Lula said, "I will seek to have local-government leaders who hindered voters' movement charged with electoral crimes and arrested."
Right-wing candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, who is running against Lula, also asked the Superior Electoral Court that day to extend voting until 7 p.m. The Bolsonaro campaign argued that severe weather, including heavy rain and flooding in three states—São Paulo, Paraná and Santa Catarina—had disrupted voting.
Lula, who is seeking a fourth term as president, trailed Bolsonaro by 2.2 million votes in the first round of the presidential election on the 4th. Local opinion polls show the two candidates locked in an extremely close race, with a gap of about 2 percentage points in their support.
 

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