Fireworks, flags as Bolsonaro wins Brazil presidential vote
Right wing former army captain Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil on Sunday after beating leftist opponent Fernando Haddad in a second round election run-off at the end of a bitter and highly polarized campaign. Supporters flooded the streets outside Bolsonaro’s home in Rio de Janeiro, letting off fireworks and waving Brazilian flags.
Official results after polls closed gave the controversial 63-year-old Bolsonaro 55.7% of the vote with more than 88% of the ballots counted as his vow to rescue the country from crisis with a firm grip resonated with Brazil’s 147 million registered voters.
He will take office on January 1, 2019.
Despite repulsing many with his open support of the torture used by Brazil’s former military dictatorship, as well as remarks deemed misogynist, racist and homophobic, Bolsonaro managed to tap into deep anti-establishment anger that propelled him to victory.
Haddad, a 55-year-old former Sao Paulo mayor, had been making up ground after finishing a distant second to Bolsonaro in the first round three weeks ago with just 29% compared to 46.
But despite reducing an 18-point deficit two weeks ago to eight to 10 points in an opinion poll published on Saturday, it wasn’t enough for the Workers Party candidate picked to replace the jailed former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.