Lula Defeats Far-Right Bolsonaro in Tight Brazilian Presidential Election

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Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — better known as Lula — has once again become the president of Brazil. Lula previously held the presidency between 2003 and 2010, enjoying incredibly high popularity for much of his time in office. However, his victory on Sunday was not guaranteed as he beat the incumbent right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro by less than 2 percentage points.

The Brazilian electoral system is a two-round system that requires a candidate to receive a majority (over 50% of the votes) to be declared the winner. In the first round, Lula came close to clearing this threshold with 48.4%, while the second place went to Bolsonaro who significantly outperformed polls and received 43.2% of the votes. This triggered the runoff election between Lula and Bolsonaro that took place on the 30th of October.

In recent weeks there has been a lot of speculation over whether the far-right leader Bolsonaro would try to influence the voting process or contest the final result, in a similar fashion to Donald Trump. There were numerous allegations of voter suppression, which led activists to appeal to the president of the Superior Electoral Court to intervene. Due to Brazil’s electronic voting machines, the results of the staggering 124 million votes were reported almost immediately. As of writing this article, Bolsonaro is yet to concede but has said he would begin the process of transitioning to Lula’s government.

Lula began his career as a metal worker and trade unionist demanding democratic elections under Brazil’s military dictatorship. In 1980 Lula co-founded the Brazilian Worker’s Party, and when the dictatorship fell in 1985 Lula began to rise quickly in the newly established Brazilian democracy. He went on to unsuccessfully run for president three times until he finally succeeded in 2002. During his two terms in office, Lula introduced radical economic reforms that played a big role in growing the GDP, reducing inflation, and lifting over 20 million people out of poverty. These successes as well as his extensive social programmes led to Lula’s unprecedented popularity, reaching almost 90% near the end of his tenure. 

However, Lula’s presidency was also plagued by scandal. In 2014, a massive corruption scandal called "Operation Car Wash" was revealed. Lula was accused of taking bribes from companies in exchange for lucrative state contracts and sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2018. This conviction was overturned by Brazil’s Supreme Court in 2021, allowing him to run in the 2022 presidential race. 

Although Lula won by only a very narrow margin, his victory has been a massive triumph for the Left in Brazil and worldwide.