The polls were close, but left-wing Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva emerged triumphant in Brazil’s presidential election in the early hours of Monday, winning by less than two percent against Jair Bosonaro.
"I won, it is my victory, like everyone I am crying with joy," said voter Mary Alves Silva, 53, a retired banker. She noted that this win was also for the stricken Amazon rainforest and its Indigenous inhabitants.
Lula won with 50.9 percent to Bolsonaro's 49.1 percent, as supporters of right-wing Bolsonaro stood by in shock.
"The Brazilian people aren't going to swallow a faked election and hand our nation over to a thief," Ruth da Silva Barbosa, 50, told AFP newswire.
Radio silence
Brazil is seemingly split in two after the vote. Bolsonaro ranted against the country’s electoral system in the weeks leading up to the election, and maintained radio silence after the results were announced.
"It scares me because I believe he is capable of anything, even though I think democracy will prevail," said 34-year-old software developer Larissa Meneses, taking part in the Sao Paulo festivities.
Lula’s victory is the latest in a string of left-wing political conquests across Latin America, a move that could be attributed more to pragmatism than ideology.
"It's not because Latin Americans are becoming more leftist. I don't think there's any evidence to support that," analyst Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue told AFP.
Right-wing and even center-right political parties, from Mexico to Chile, have lost, which some attribute to economic woes and the after-effects of Covid-19.
"It is more of a rejectionist trend than anything else... people looking for an alternative," said Shifter of the recent string of leftist victories.
Brazil’s far-right-wing Bolsonaro, who regularly espoused sexist, homophobic, racist and anti-Indigenous policies, regularly divided the country.
Brazil’s 685,000 pandemic death toll is believed to have stemmed from his anti-Covid stance and his reluctance to take progressive measures to protect Brazilians.
Political veteran Lula served two terms as president in 2003 to 2010, and was credited with lifting 30 million Brazilians out of poverty during his tenure.
