Thousands of Brazilians living in Ireland cast their vote for president

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.

Some 12,000 Brazilians are registered in Ireland.

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

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.

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.

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

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

“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.