2018 Brazilian general election facts for kids

Second round results

First round results

General elections were held in Brazil on 7 October 2018. During these elections, people voted for the President and Vice President, along with other important political leaders in the country.

The first round of the presidential election happened on 7 October 2018. Jair Bolsonaro received 46% of the votes, and Fernando Haddad received 29.3%. Since no candidate won more than half of the votes (50%), a second round of voting was held on 28 October 2018. In this second round, Jair Bolsonaro was elected president.

What Happened Before the Election?

In the 2014 elections, Dilma Rousseff was re-elected as president. She won the second round with 51.6% of the votes.

However, on 3 December 2015, a process to remove President Rousseff from office began. This process is called an impeachment. The Chamber of Deputies officially accepted the request to start the impeachment process. Because of this, Vice President Michel Temer, from the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, became the temporary President of Brazil. On 31 August 2016, the Senate voted to remove Rousseff from office. They found her guilty of breaking rules about the country's budget. Vice President Temer then officially became the 37th President of Brazil.

Who Could Not Run?

Even though the president at the time, Michel Temer, said he would not run for president, he was later not allowed to hold office for eight years. This was because of rules about election laws.

Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had also said he wanted to run for president again. However, he was not allowed to run in the 2018 elections due to legal reasons.

• 

  President
  Michel Temer (MDB)
  from São Paulo
  Not allowed to run on 2 June 2018

• 

  Former President
  Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT)
  from São Paulo
  Not allowed to run on 1 August 2018

Who Were the Candidates?

Candidates in the Second Round

The following candidates moved on to the second round of voting because they received the most votes in the first round:

• 

  Jair Bolsonaro
  (PSL)
  from Rio de Janeiro

• 

  Fernando Haddad
  (PT)
  from São Paulo

Candidates Eliminated in the First Round

These candidates did not get enough votes in the first round and were eliminated from the election:

• 

  Geraldo Alckmin
  (PSDB)
  from São Paulo

• 

  João Amoêdo
  (NOVO)
  from Rio de Janeiro

• 

  Guilherme Boulos
  (PSOL)
  from São Paulo

• 

  Cabo Daciolo
  (PATRI)
  from Santa Catarina

• 

  Álvaro Dias
  (PODE)
  from Paraná

• 

  José Maria Eymael
  (DC)
  from Rio Grande do Sul

• 

  Ciro Gomes
  (PDT)
  from Ceará

• 

  Henrique Meirelles
  (MDB)
  from Goiás

• 

  Marina Silva
  (REDE)
  from Acre

• 

  Vera Lúcia
  (PSTU)
  from Pernambuco

• 

  João Goulart Filho
  (PPL)
  from Rio de Janeiro

What Did People Think?

This section shows graphs of what people thought about the candidates before the election. These are called opinion polls.

First Round Polls

• 

  Polls from 2015 until the election day

Second Round Polls

• 

  Graph showing how opinions changed for the second round candidates

Election Results

Second Round Results

In the second round, Jair Bolsonaro won the election.

First Round Results

Here are the results from the first round of voting:

Images for kids

• 

  Voters lined up waiting for their turn to vote in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul

• 

  Second round results by state

See also

In Spanish: Elecciones generales de Brasil de 2018 para niños