Lula da Silva wins Brazilian election narrowly beating Jair Bolsonaro

Authored by news.sky.com and submitted by souly97

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has won the Brazilian election, narrowly beating Jair Bolsonaro, official figures show.

It has been Brazil's most polarised election in recent memory, pitting far-right incumbent President Bolsonaro against leftist former leader Lula da Silva.

On his victory, Mr da Silva tweeted a simple picture of his hand over the Brazilian flag and the word: "Democracy."

It is a stunning return to power for Mr da Silva, 77, whose 2018 imprisonment over a corruption scandal sidelined him from that year's election, paving the way for then-candidate Mr Bolsonaro's win and four years of far-right politics.

Image: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

Mr da Silva's convictions were annulled, but he faced an uphill battle, when he decided to re-run for president, with many millions of Brazilians continuing to believe he was corrupt.

After his victory was announced, he said: "They tried to bury me alive, and I'm here!"

And in his first speech to the nation as president-elect, he vowed his most urgent commitment would be to "end hunger" in Brazil.

His victory marks the first time since Brazil's 1985 return to democracy that the sitting president has failed to win reelection.

Colombian president Gustavo Petro wrote: "Viva Lula," while Argentina's leader Alberto Fernandez said the victory ushered in a new era "for the history of Latin America".

He added: "A time of hope and future begins today."

Brazil's Supreme Electoral Court's count showed it was a close contest - Mr da Silva polled 50.9% of votes compared with 49.1% for Mr Bolsonaro, with all of the voting machines counted.

The election, in the world's fourth-largest democracy, served as a referendum on two starkly different - and vehemently opposed - visions for Brazil's future.

Mr Bolsonaro vowed to consolidate a sharp rightward turn in Brazilian politics after a presidency that witnessed one of the world's deadliest outbreaks of COVID-19 and widespread deforestation in the Amazon basin.

The world reacts to the comeback of Lula

Mr da Silva promised more social and environmental responsibility, evoking the rising prosperity of his 2003-2010 presidency, before corruption scandals tarnished his Workers' Party.

More than 120 million Brazilians were expected to cast ballots, with the vote conducted electronically.

There are also fears Mr Bolsonaro could challenge the election results should he lose - much like former US President Donald Trump.

For months, he claimed the nation's electronic voting machines are prone to fraud, though he never presented evidence.

As Mr da Silva prepared to give a speech at a hotel in São Paulo on Sunday evening, Mr Bolsonaro had yet to concede the election.

It was the country's closest poll in more than three decades. Just over two million votes separated the two candidates, with 99.5% of the vote counted. The previous closest race, in 2014, was decided by a margin of 3.46 million votes.

The new president, known universally as Lula, will be sworn in on 1 January 2023.

Luk3Master on October 30th, 2022 at 23:08 UTC »

Here's a (very brief) timeline over whatever led to this.

Lula gets two extremely popular mandates from 2003 to 2011 (the highest ever in the New Republic). His sucessor, Dilma, gets two more mandates. The first one is seen as fine and the second one was a political and economical nightmare and culminated in her impeachment. Their party tanks in popularity over this. While in Dilma's second mandate, Lula was charged over allegations of being bribed by a company in 2010, which he denies. The judge responsible gets very popular for being seen as arresting corrupt politicians. Dilma is impeached. Lula is found guilty. He's now unable to run for president in 2018. Supreme Court changes constitutional understanding of timing of arrest and Lula gets immediately arrested. Bolsonaro is elected, and he turns the judge responsible for his political enemy's arrest a Minister of Justice. The Intercept leaks messages showing the judge colluding with prosecution to secure Lula's condemnation and arrest before the elections. Supreme Court changes (again) the understanding of time of arrest and Lula is now free while he appeals his case to the Supreme Court. He stayed 580 days in prison. Lula's hearing on Supreme Court starts. They rule that the judge was suspect and that Lula was judged in the wrong state. Everything in the case is completely nulled. Meaning it must start over from the beginning. Prosecution decides to archive the case, affirming that it would be impossible to do so before the crime expires due to the statute of limitations. Lula is now able to run for president against Bolsonaro The judge leaves Bolsonaro's government claiming that he interfered with the Federal Police, a crime (probably because the president's sons are being investigated). Congress decides to do absolutely nothing. The Prosecutor General does absolutely nothing. Meanwhile, the judge: tried to run for president, caused an crisis inside his own party and changed his candidacy to run for Senator. He won and started to help Bolsonaro's campaign, joining his debate consultancy. Apparently Bolsonaro's interference in the Federal Police doesn't bother him anymore. Lula is elected President of the Republic

Azrael1821 on October 30th, 2022 at 23:01 UTC »

Just waiting for the "Election was rigged" excuses now.

LordLoko on October 30th, 2022 at 23:01 UTC »

Official results: https://especiaisg1.globo/politica/eleicoes/2022/mapas/mapa-da-apuracao-no-brasil-presidente/2-turno/

Lula: 50.82% with 59,437,956 votes

Bolsonaro: 49.18% with 57,527,106 votes

Blank votes: 1,43% with 1.746.850 (voting is mandatory in Brazil, if you don't want to vote in any candidate, you press a button saying BRANCO to say you don't want to vote to any candidate in this office)

Null votes 3.16% with 3,881,205 (Null votes are when you put an invalid number on the ballot, this can happen either accidentally or intentionally, doing just like the blank vote)

Abstentions: 20.55% with 31.747.702 votes