Brazil election 2026: Presidential candidates cast votes in first round

Brazil's presidential candidates cast their ballots on Sunday morning as the country opened its polls for the first round of the 2026 general election. Accompanied by family members and key political allies, the main contenders arrived at polling stations in their respective home states, setting the stage for a day of high-stakes voting across the nation.## How the candidates votedRonaldo Caiado, the governor of Goiás and candidate for the Social Democratic Party (PSD), was among the first to vote. He travelled to the northern part of his state, casting his ballot at the Colégio Estadual Zizi Perillo Caiado in the Setor Central area of Nova Crixás. After leaving the polling booth, Caiado said he planned to spend the afternoon monitoring the election's progress across Goiás before settling in to watch the official count.In São Paulo, the country's most populous state and a key electoral battleground, other candidates also made early appearances. Renan Santos, representing the Missão party, cast his vote at a state school in the South Zone of São Paulo city.A few hours later, the well-known writer and psychiatrist Augusto Cury, who is running under the Avante banner, voted in his birthplace of Colina, a town in the São Paulo countryside. Cury arrived at his polling station at 11:00 local time to cast his ballot.## A massive logistical operationThe presidential race is part of a much larger election day across Brazil. Millions of citizens are heading to the polls not only to choose their next president, but also to elect state governors, federal and state deputies, and senators.Voting is mandatory for most Brazilian citizens aged between 18 and 70, with optional voting for those aged 16 to 17 and those over 70. This makes the election one of the largest single-day democratic exercises in the world, with polling stations set up in schools, community centres, and remote villages from the Amazon basin to the southern border.Polling stations across the country's multiple time zones are synchronized to close at 17:00 Brasília time. Thanks to Brazil’s fully electronic voting system, which has been used nationwide for nearly three decades, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) will begin publishing the official results almost immediately after the last votes are cast.If no presidential candidate secures an absolute majority of more than 50% of the valid votes today, the two frontrunners will face each other in a second-round run-off scheduled for later in October. Until then, the candidates and their campaign teams will be watching the screens closely as the electronic tallies pour in.