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BRASIL Lula posted his strongest local results in the Northeast while Flávio Bolsonaro led in the South in Brazil’s first round
The map of each candidate’s top-performing municipalities again showed a regional split. Reports from O Globo and other Brazilian outlets pointed to Lula’s strongest pockets in small Northeastern towns and Flávio Bolsonaro’s in the South.
Brazil’s 2026 presidential first round highlighted the main local strongholds of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro, who will face each other again in the October 25 runoff.
According to O Globo, Lula’s highest municipal share came in Bonfim do Piauí, in the state of Piauí, where he won 88.73% of valid votes. It was followed by Carnaubeira da Penha, in Pernambuco, with 88.33%; Fartura do Piauí, with 88.23%; and Pariconha, in Alagoas, with 88.12%.
Among the ten municipalities where the president and reelection candidate posted his best percentages, eight are in the Northeast. O Globo also noted that Piauí appears five times in that ranking and Pernambuco three times.
For Flávio Bolsonaro, his strongest municipal result was in Nova Pádua, in Rio Grande do Sul, where he reached 87.02% of valid votes, O Globo reported. Next came Novo Progresso, in Pará, with 84.13%; Quatro Pontes, in Paraná, with 83.35%; and Nova Bassano, also in Rio Grande do Sul, with 83.19%.
The same survey showed that six of the ten municipalities with Bolsonaro’s highest percentages are in Rio Grande do Sul. Cities in Paraná, Mato Grosso and Pará also appear on the list.
Folha de S.Paulo reported that Flávio Bolsonaro won 714 municipalities that had backed Lula in 2022, while the incumbent did not flip any city compared with the previous election. According to the newspaper, the states with the highest number of municipalities shifting to Flávio were Minas Gerais, with 178, and Rio Grande do Sul, with 134.
According to G1 Globo, Flávio Bolsonaro finished the first round with 47.03% of valid votes, compared with Lula’s 45.16%, a gap of 1.87 percentage points. The outlet also said Roraima was the state where the PL candidate opened his widest lead, with 71.06%, while Lula’s best statewide result was in Piauí, with 70.99%.
Another G1 Globo report said Flávio Bolsonaro topped 50% of valid votes in the Federal District and 13 states, while Lula did so in 9 states, all of them in the Northeast.
Even though many of these municipalities carry limited national weight, the territorial spread of the vote again showed Lula’s strongest base in the Northeastern interior and Flávio Bolsonaro’s especially solid support in the South and parts of the North.
Sources
About this piece. Written by El Notero with AI assistance, from reporting published by the outlet cited above. El Notero did no original reporting on this story.
