Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the left-wing Workers’ Party has defeated incumbent Jair Bolsonaro to become the country’s next president, Brazil’s electoral authority said on Sunday (October 30).
With 99 per cent of the votes tallied, da Silva had 50.9 per cent (60,057,023) and Bolsonaro 49.1 per cent (57,982,586), and the election authority said da Silva’s victory was a mathematical certainty. Da Silva, the country’s president from 2003-2010, has promised to restore Brazil’s more prosperous past, yet faces headwinds in a polarised society.
It is a stunning return to power for da Silva – who recently celebrated his 77th birthday – whose 2018 imprisonment over a corruption scandal sidelined him from that year’s election. That paved the way for then-candidate, and retired military officer, Bolsonaro’s win and four years of far-right politics.
It was the first time an incumbent president failed to win re-election in the 34 years of Brazil’s modern democracy. And now six of the region’s seven largest countries have elected leftist leaders since 2018.
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