The debate about the presidential elections on Twitter prompted 4.23 million publications from 00:01 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. this Sunday (28). Jair Bolsonaro remained in the lead in references on the network with 3 million posts, while Fernando Haddad had 1.58 million tweets. At around 7 p.m., with the announcement of the first partial vote tally and the confirmation of Bolsonaro’s victory, the volume of references to the candidate increased significantly: there were 580 thousand mentions to the president-elect in the short period from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Evolution of mentions to political actors on Twitter per hour
12am – 10pm Oct 28

Jair Bolsonaro

The most retweeted publications about Jair Bolsonaro showed a balance between critical references and praise for his victory – the post with the most repercussion was made by the president-elect’s official account, in which he thanked Brazil for the votes. Profiles opposed to his candidacy accused him of representing hatred and intolerance and stated that his electors will be responsible for the supposedly negative consequences of their choice, especially regarding the effects of the election for women, black people and the LGBT community. There were also messages highlighting the need for the unity of the fields that did not vote for Bolsonaro.

Number of mentions to political actors on Twitter
12am – 10pm Oct 28

Fernando Haddad

Between the start of the vote tally release, at around 7 p.m., and 10 p.m. Haddad registered little variation in his volume of mentions. The main tweets in this period had messages of support from the Northeast due to the PT candidate’s victory in that region.