Brazilians anxiously awaited the results of an election campaign between far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday, in a bitterly divisive race deemed too close.

The runoff capped a sordid campaign that has deeply divided the South American nation of 215 million people between supporters of conservative ex-army captain Bolsonaro, those of charismatic ex-metalworker Lula and many others more or less equally disgusted by both.

Lula supporters let off fireworks and cheered as he took a razor-sharp lead with 73 percent of the polls: he had 50.13 percent of the vote versus 49.87 percent for Bolsonaro, according to official results.

Allegations of foul play lingered until the very end, when Lula’s Labor Party (PT) accused police of deploying massive roadblocks in its strongholds, particularly in the impoverished Northeast, to stifle votes.

About an hour before the polls closed at 17:00 (2000 GMT), Chief Electoral Judge Alexandre de Moraes said the situation had been resolved and ruled against extending polling hours.

Anyone standing in line after the polls close can still vote.

Dressed in red to show their support for Lula, or the yellow and green of the Brazilian flag adopted by Bolsonaro supporters, voters cast a vote from Sao Paulo to the beaches and favelas of Rio de Janeiro to the Amazon rainforest electronic vote.

The nation is anxious at the outcome after months of mud-slinging and personal attacks, as well as Bolsonaro’s allegations of fraud in the electoral system.

“Fear level is 1,000. I think it will go down to the last second,” Lula devotee Thais Mendonca Plaza, a 42-year-old couples therapist, told AFP at a bar in Sao Paulo, where she and her friends watched the results come.

Lula, 77, narrowly won the election on the first round on Oct. 2, going into the final as the slight favorite with 52 percent of voter support to 48 percent for Bolsonaro, according to a final poll by the Datafolha Institute on Saturday.

However, Bolsonaro, 67, performed better than expected last time out and the result is unclear.

Bolsonaro has come under fire for his disastrous handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has claimed more than 680,000 lives in Brazil, as well as his caustic style and contempt for political correctness.

In recent months, however, falling unemployment, falling inflation and a recovering economy have given it a boost.

His key supporters – business, anti-corruption voters and the powerful Bibles, Bullets and Beef coalition – love his hard-edged style and focus on conservative values.

“I am against abortion. I choose the person who will defend the family: the ‘legend,'” said 67-year-old Magali Zimmermann, who used a nickname for Bolsonaro, at a church in Copacabana.

“Bolsonaro is not perfect, he is not Jesus. But I made a comparison and he was never in jail,” said Afro-Brazilian housewife Vanuza Xavier, 39, referring to the transplant cases that have long haunted Lula as she voted in the capital, Brazil.

In Copacabana, education teacher Gustavo Souza, who voted for Lula, said he was “anxious” about the result and expressed fears Bolsonaro would not accept the result after months of attacking the voting system.

“People have become so radical. They’re going to need some maturity…or it’s going to be World War III or World War IV,” he said, laughing nervously.

On Friday night, Bolsonaro vowed to respect the election despite possible allegations of manipulation and backlash from his supporters.

“I think this is the most important election in the democratic history of Brazil,” said Miguel Martins, a 36-year-old writer who is voting for Lula in the capital, Brasilia.

“It has been very difficult living in this country for the last four years and I am very confident that we can turn the page.”

The election has global ramifications: conservationists believe the outcome could seal the fate of the Amazon rainforest, which has been marginalized by fires and deforestation that have increased under Bolsonaro.

For Brazilians, however, problems such as poverty, hunger, corruption and traditional values ??are in the foreground.

Lula was the country’s most popular president when he left office and helped lift millions out of poverty with his social programs.

However, he then became caught up in a massive corruption scandal and was jailed for 18 months before his conviction was overturned last year. The Supreme Court found the lead judge biased, but Lula was not exonerated.

If he wins, he faces a hostile Congress dominated by Bolsonaro’s lawmakers and allies.

A second term for Bolsonaro would likely mean stepping up his hard-line conservative agenda and “culture wars,” analysts say.