'Brazil's Trump' wins election in Latin America's biggest country

Jair Bolsonaro, the new President-elect of Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro. Photo / AP

Brazil's Supreme Electoral Tribunal has declared far-right congressman Jair Bolsonaro the next president of Latin America's biggest country.

With 96 per cent of ballots counted, Bolsonaro had 55.5 per cent of the votes.

Leftist Fernando Haddad of the Workers' Party had 44.5 per cent.

Voters in today's runoff election apparently looked past warnings that the brash former army captain would erode democracy and embraced a chance for radical change after years of turmoil.

The populist is often referred to as Brazil's Trump.

Bolsonaro went into the election the clear front-runner after getting 46 per cent of the votes to Haddad's 29 per cent in the first round of the election on October 7.

After opinion polls in recent weeks had Bolsonaro leading by as much as 18 percentage points, the race had tightened in recent days. But Haddad was unable to make up the difference.

- AP