The president of the Superior Electoral Court, Kassio Nunes Marques, said on Sunday (Oct. 4) that he intends to take steps to reduce voter abstention in the second round.

According to the Electoral Court’s vote-tallying system, 21.08 percent of voters abstained in the first round, or 33.4 million people.

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“The idea is to intensify and refine all available mechanisms so that we can reduce this percentage in the second round,” Marques pointed out.

The first round also recorded 2.2 million blank and 3.6 million invalid ballots. Neither is counted among the valid votes.

The electorate totaled 158.7 million eligible voters, while 125 million cast a ballot.

Record high

The abstention rate recorded in the first round was the highest since 1998, when it stood at 21.5 percent.

In the first round of the 2022 presidential election, 20.95 percent of eligible voters did not cast a ballot.