Why Flavio Bolsonaro outperformed the polls in Brazil’s election

With three weeks to go until Brazil’s presidential runoff, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva finds himself in a weaker position than he — or most pollsters — had expected.A second round of voting was widely predicted. But most recent polls had Lula entering a runoff from first place, putting him about three percentage points ahead of rival Senator Flavio Bolsonaro.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Brazil’s presidential race: Three key takeaways from the first roundlist 2 of 4Bolsonaro beats expectations in Brazil vote, faces Lula in runofflist 3 of 4Bolsonaro favourite to win: What Brazil’s first round of elections tells uslist 4 of 4Brazil’s presidential race head for a tough runoffend of listInstead, Bolsonaro took about 47 percent of the vote on Sunday to Lula’s 45 percent, a reversal that surprised analysts and raised questions about what happened in the final days of the campaign, and what the polls may have missed.What changed in the final daysCarlos Pereira, a political scientist at the Getulio Vargas Foundation think-tank in Brazil, believes part of the answer lies in a late shift among voters who had planned to support smaller right-wing candidates.Bolsonaro ...