Lula wins Brazil’s presidential election, ousting incumbent Bolsonaro
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the leftist Worker’s Party has defeated incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in a tight election to become Brazil’s next president.
With 98.8% of the votes tallied in the runoff vote — Lula had 50.8% and Bolsonaro 49.2% — the election authority said his victory was a mathematical certainty.
Mr Lula da Silva, the country’s former president from 2003-2010, has promised to restore the country’s more prosperous past but faces headwinds in a polarised society.
It is a stunning return to power for Lula, 77, whose 2018 imprisonment over a corruption scandal sidelined him from that year’s election, paving the way for Mr Bolsonaro’s win and four years of far-right politics.
His victory marks the first time since Brazil‘s 1985 return to democracy that the sitting president has failed to win reelection.
World leaders, including US president Joe Biden and French president Emmanuel Macron, congratulated Mr Lula da Silva on his victory.
His inauguration is scheduled to take place on 1 January.
