Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a vocal critic of U.S. President Donald Trump, was re-elected on Sunday in a result that keeps some distance between Latin America’s biggest economy and Washington.
With 100 per cent of the vote counted, Brazil’s electoral court announced that Lula, who turns 81 on Tuesday, had a lead of nearly 4.4 million votes — 51.8 per cent of the total vote — over opponent Flávio Bolsonaro.
The announcement capped an evening of chaos at polling places across Brazil, following a last-minute decision to extend voting by two hours.
Late Sunday, Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat, calling the move to extend voting hours unprecedented — though both he and Lula made the request — and asked for the election results to be annulled, saying they were impossible to accept.
In addressing supporters, Lula expressed his gratitude to the Brazilian people and pledged to respect all Brazilians, regardless of gender or religion. He also attacked Bolsonaro.
Lula supporters celebrate election results in Sao Paulo on Sunday. (Amanda Perobelli/Reuters)
“This was a defeat for denialism and lies. I must confess that every time I attended a debate, I felt embarrassed,” he said.
Lula also doubled down on his commitment to Brazil’s sovereignty.
“Either the homeland remains free or we die for Brazil,” he said. “This country will not accept being anyone’s backyard.”
Lula’s triumph bucks a trend in Latin America where increasing numbers of right-of-centre presidential candidates allied with Trump have been winning, further extending the United States’ influence in the region.
His victory leaves Mexico and Brazil, Latin America’s two most populous nations, with left-of-centre leaders. It also positions the region’s largest economy, with a GDP of $2.6 trillion US per year, to remain independent of the U.S., despite the pressure of increased tariffs imposed by Trump.
Lula supporters celebrate
A video published by Lula’s campaign shows the veteran leader celebrating with his wife, Rosângela Lula da Silva, and allies after his run-off victory was confirmed by Brazil’s electoral court. Wearing star-shaped red glasses, he kissed his wife. Hundreds of his supporters began gathering on São Paulo’s main artery to celebrate the victory.
In Rio de Janeiro, cars beeped their horns and a woman dressed in red — the colour of Lula supporters — shouted “You lost! Cry harder!” to four men in yellow and green sipping beers, Bolsonaro’s signature colours. A huge roar echoed in the street as the result was confirmed.
Lula’s supporters celebrate in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. (Lucas Landau/The Associated Press)
Rodrigo Valentim, a 51-year-old businessman and supporter of Bolsonaro, said that another Lula government would harm the economy. He pointed to financial markets’ positive reaction to the result of the first round, when Bolsonaro bested Lula.
“I don’t understand how people can vote for Lula,” he said. “The country is collapsing.”
Last-minute polling station confusion
The electoral court’s announcement ended an evening of confusion at polling places after Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin ruled three minutes before the scheduled end of voting to keep polls open for two more hours, following requests by both candidates.
Lula’s request came after issues with buses that provide transportation to polls in São Paulo and Salvador, two cities that tend to favour the incumbent. Bolsonaro’s request was due to heavy rains in Brazil’s south, where he is favoured.
In Brasilia, volunteers who oversaw the vote count at a school debated whether they needed to stay after the announcement to extend voting, but most left 15 to 20 minutes after polls closed and they had given count information to electoral authorities.
People line up outside a polling station in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. (Agustin Marcarian/Reuters)
At a polling station in Rio de Janeiro, the voting machines had already been switched off minutes after polls were set to close and couldn’t be turned back on.
The decision delayed tallying the votes by two hours. It was unclear how many polling stations stayed open after the scheduled closing time.
Bolsonaro ally Nikolas Ferreira noted that Zanin, who made the decision, is Lula’s former lawyer.
Cost of living, security top of mind for voters
Bolsonaro bested Lula by more than 2.2 million votes in the first round of the election earlier this month. Sunday night’s apparent victory by Lula marked the first time since Brazil’s military dictatorship ended in 1985 that the second-highest vote-getter in the first-round elections won the presidency.
Lula faced a tough re-election battle because of concerns about the cost of living and security. Bolsonaro made a tough-on-crime approach the cornerstone of his campaign and pledged to bring down food costs, while Lula, trying to lure undecided voters, has invested in costly incentives.
Presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro walks toward a voting booth at a polling station in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. (Mauro Pimentel/AFP/Getty Images)
Both have been hit by corruption suspicions involving family members and allies, with Bolsonaro implicated in a sprawling scandal rocking Brazil. Lula previously spent more than a year in prison on corruption convictions that were eventually annulled.
This will likely be the last victory of the veteran leader’s political career. Lula began his political career in the 1970s as a union leader. He then helped found the Workers’ Party, which he represented as a presidential candidate three times until he finally won in 2002. He was re-elected four years later and was succeeded by one of his cabinet ministers, Dilma Rousseff, in 2010. She was re-elected in 2014.
Rousseff was impeached for accounting manoeuvring in 2016 amid a sprawling corruption probe, which also ensnared Lula. He tried to run for president again in 2018 but was jailed in March after being convicted.
Members of the military police stand guard as people gather to watch election results in São Paulo on Sunday. (Jean Carniel/Reuters)
Lula was released from prison after 580 days and saw Brazil’s Supreme Court annul his sentence after police found messages that showed the judge who convicted him was biased. He quickly became one of former president Jair Bolsonaro’s biggest critics and narrowly beat him in 2022.
Since he lost the first round, Lula reorganized his campaign, appealed to young voters, put millions of Brazilians on the streets to defend democratic values and his legacy, raised fears of another Bolsonaro administration and boosted several government initiatives.
He joins Trump and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega — all aged 80 — as the oldest presidents in the Americas.
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