Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won a fourth term as Brazil's president, completing a comeback that few expected after he narrowly trailed in the first round earlier this month. With every vote counted, the 80-year-old leftist took 51.79% to 48.21% for far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro, a margin of 4.4 million votes, The Guardian reported.
No candidate who finished second in a first round had gone on to win the runoff since Brazil returned to democracy in the 1980s. Lula did it on Sunday, setting off celebrations in São Paulo, where he followed the count.
A refusal to concede
Bolsonaro, 45, did not accept the outcome. Speaking while Lula delivered his victory speech, he said conceding was impossible and that his lawyers would seek to annul the election. He pointed to Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin's decision to keep polls open two extra hours, until 7 p.m., calling it a change to the rules mid-game. He did not mention that his own campaign had also asked the electoral court to extend voting.
The move echoed his father. Former president Jair Bolsonaro refused to recognize his 2022 loss to Lula, then attempted a coup and was convicted; he is serving a 27-year sentence and living under house arrest in Brasília, where the news was met with anger. Supporters of Lula in São Paulo also voiced fury at what appeared to be an effort by pro-Bolsonaro politicians to disrupt public transport in Lula-leaning areas on election day, an effort that ultimately failed.
"This election was a defeat for denialism," Lula told a crowd of supporters in a São Paulo conference hall, thanking voters and crediting democracy for the result.
How he turned it around
Lula's camp had bet on turnout, and it paid off. Abstention fell from a record 21.08% in the first round, which hit Lula's voters hardest because they tend to live farther from polling places, to 19.21% in the runoff. On Saturday, more than a million people rallied on Copacabana beach in Rio and an even larger crowd marched on Paulista Avenue in São Paulo.
The win is a setback for Donald Trump, the Bolsonaro family's most important foreign ally, who had hoped Flávio Bolsonaro would join a wave of Trump-aligned leaders in Latin America, The Guardian reported. It also dashes Jair Bolsonaro's hopes of being freed had his son won. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Paraguayan President Santiago Peña were among the leaders who congratulated Lula.
Lula, who turns 81 on Tuesday, has now added a remarkable late chapter to a career that began in São Paulo's union movement in the 1970s and made him Brazil's first elected working-class president in 2002. The next test is whether Bolsonaro's challenge goes anywhere.
Reporting sources: World news | The Guardian, “Lula wins fourth term as Brazil president after historic upset over far-right Flávio Bolsonaro”.