Thousands of Brazilians living in Ireland cast their vote for president

ireland
Thousands Of Brazilians Living In Ireland Cast Their Vote For President
Brazilians queue to vote in Dublin, © PA Wire/PA Images
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By Rebecca Black, PA

Thousands of Brazilians living in Ireland have cast their votes in the election for their country’s next president.

A long queue formed early on Sunday at Croke Park in Dublin, where the polls opened at 8am.

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Some 12,000 Brazilians are registered in Ireland.

Brazil Presidential election
Jair Bolsonaro supporters at Croke Park in Dublin, as thousands of Brazilian citizens from all over Ireland gather to vote in their country’s presidential election (Niall Carson/PA)

Around 8,000 in Ireland voted in the first round of the race between Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro.

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Some in the queue were wearing red in support of Mr da Silva, known mononymously as Lula, while others were expressing their support for Mr Bolsonaro.

Brazil’s ambassador to Ireland, Marcel Biato, said they expected to see a good turnout on Sunday.

“They have to be Brazilian citizens and they have to be registered to vote in Ireland,” he told the PA news agency.

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Brazil Presidential election
Brazilians from all over Ireland queue to vote at Croke Park in Dublin (Niall Carson/PA)

With electronic voting being used, results are expected around three hours after the closing of the polls.

Mr Biato said there around 156 million people are eligible to vote in Brazil and 500,000 overseas.

“It’s all tallied electronically; we have a very secure system which has been in use for about 35 years,” he said.

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“It’s a very secure system, which means people can be very comfortable and know that their vote counts.”

Brazil Presidential election
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva supporters Geneci da Cruz iu Fhatharta and her husband, Gearoid O Fatharta, queue to cast their votes (Niall Carson/PA)

Geneci da Cruz iu Fhatharta travelled from Galway to cast her ballot.

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“We do need to make that effort to travel long hours to come and vote for Lula,” she said.

Alberto dos Santos, who lives in Dublin, turned out to vote for Mr Bolsonaro.

He said he feels there are more Lula supporters in Dublin, but more who support Mr Bolsonaro in Brazil.

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