Leftist Lula da Silva wins over 50 percent of the votes against right-wing rival Bolsonaro in Brazil’s run-off presidential election, says the nation’s electoral authority.
Leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has won Brazil’s divisive election, defeating incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in a narrow vote.
With more than 99% of the votes tallied in Sunday’s run-off vote, da Silva had 50.9% and Bolsonaro 49.1%, and the election authority said da Silva’s victory was a mathematical certainty.
Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court (TES) has said the country’s presidential election was “mathematically defined” with former president Lula da Silva taking more votes than incumbent Bolsonaro.
“Today the only winner is the Brazilian people,” da Silva said in a speech at a hotel in downtown Sao Paulo. “This isn’t a victory of mine or the Workers’ Party, nor the parties that supported me in the campaign. It’s the victory of a democratic movement that formed above political parties, personal interests and ideologies so that democracy came out victorious.”
It is a stunning reversal for da Silva, 77, whose 2018 imprisonment over a corruption scandal sidelined him from the 2018 election that brought Bolsonaro, a defender of conservative social values, to power.
He said he will govern for all Brazilians and not just those who voted for him and called “it is time to put down arms that never should have been taken up”.
Da Silva is promising to govern beyond his leftist Workers’ Party. He wants to bring in centrists and even some leaning to the right who voted for him for the first time, and to restore the country’s more prosperous past. Yet he faces headwinds in a politically polarised society where economic growth is slowing and inflation is soaring.
His victory marks the first time since Brazil’s 1985 return to democracy that the sitting president has failed to win reelection. The highly polarized election in Latin America’s biggest economy extended a wave of recent leftist victories in the region, including Chile, Colombia and Argentina.
Lula clinches victory in Brazil – a historic come back for the former two term president who two years ago was in prison – but it’s the closest result in modern history and he has his work cut out to unit a deeply divided country pic.twitter.com/f9B1YbWTbq
— Millicent (@MillyTeasdale) October 30, 2022
Between right and left
The vote will determine if the world’s fourth-largest democracy stays the same course of far-right politics or returns a leftist to the top job — and, in the latter case, whether Bolsonaro will accept defeat.
There were multiple reports of what critics said appeared attempts to suppress turnout of likely da Silva voters.
Most opinion polls before the election gave a lead to da Silva, universally known as Lula, though political analysts agreed the race grew increasingly tight in recent weeks.
For months, it appeared that da Silva was headed for easy victory as he kindled nostalgia for his 2003-2010 presidency, when Brazil’s economy was booming and welfare helped tens of millions join the middle class.
But while da Silva topped the Oct 2 first-round elections with 48% of the vote, Bolsonaro was a strong second at 43%, showing opinion polls significantly underestimated his popularity.
It’s official folks. Lula is back. Just elected next president of #Brazil. Supporters are pouring onto Paulista avenue. W/ 99.5% of the votes counted, he has 50.9% of the vote, 2 million more than Bolsonaro. @TheWorld @NACLA @TheRealNews @Terra360net @globalexchange @trtworld pic.twitter.com/9SHZ6JqNaJ
— Michael Fox (@mfox_us) October 30, 2022
Over 150 million voted
Many Brazilians support Bolsonaro’s defence of conservative social values and he has shored up support with vast government spending.
More than 150 million Brazilians are eligible to vote, yet about 20% of the electorate abstained in the first round. Both da Silva and Bolsonaro have focused efforts on driving turnout.
The electoral authority prohibited any federal highway police operations from affecting voters’ passage on public transport.
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
Lula defeats Bolsonaro in tight Brazil election
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