Lula wins Brazilian election
BRAZIL - Brazilian leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva narrowly defeated President Jair Bolsonaro in a runoff election, but the far right incumbent did not concede defeat on Sunday night, raising concerns that he might contest the result.
The Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) declared Lula the next president, with 50.9 per cent of votes against 49.1 per cent for Bolsonaro. The 77-year-old Lula’s inauguration is scheduled for January 1.
It was a stunning comeback for the leftist former president and a punishing blow to Bolsonaro, the first Brazilian incumbent to lose a presidential election.
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Paulista Ave.
A source in the Bolsonaro campaign told Reuters the president would not make public remarks until yesterday. The Bolsonaro campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Bolsonaro last year openly discussed refusing to accept the results of the vote, making baseless claims that Brazil’s electronic voting system was vulnerable to fraud.
One close Bolsonaro ally, lawmaker Carla Zambelli, in an apparent nod to the results, wrote on Twitter, “I promise you, I will be the greatest opposition that Lula has ever imagined.”
Financial markets might be in for a volatile week, with investors gauging speculation about Lula’s Cabinet and the risk of Bolsonaro questioning results.
Vote
The vote was a rebuke for the fiery far-right populism of Bolsonaro, who emerged from the backbenches of Congress to forge a novel conservative coalition but lost support as Brazil ran up one of the worst death tolls of the coronavirus pandemic.
US President Joe Biden congratulated Lula for winning ‘free, fair and credible elections’, joining a chorus of compliments from European and Latin American leaders.
International election observers said Sunday’s election was conducted efficiently. One observer told Reuters that military auditors did not find any flaws in integrity tests they did of the voting system.