Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro ahead in Brazil election

Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro has topped the first round of Brazil’s presidential election, after a bitter campaign that has caused deep divisions across the country.

However, the 63-year-old did not reach the 50% threshhold needed to secure outright victory from a field of 13 candidates and will face off against left-wing Workers Party candidate Fernando Haddad in a second-round run-off vote on 28 October.

Bolsonaro, who claimed 46% of the vote to Haddad’s 29%, will go into the contest as a clear favourite, the BBC reports.

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Following the ballot, Bolsonaro blamed unspecified “problems” with the electronic voting system used in Brazil for his failure to gain an outright majority.

“I am certain that if this hadn't happened, we would have known the name of the president of the republic tonight,” he told supporters.

Support for the tough-on-crime nationalist soared after he was stabbed in the abdomen during a campaign rally in the city of Juiz de Fora last month, an incident CNN says “seemed to symbolize the uncharted territory into which the election was heading”.

Casting his vote on Sunday, Bolsonaro was surrounded by a heavy security presence, and was reportedly wearing a bulletproof vest.