LEFT-WING LULA WINS FIRST ROUND OF BRAZIL’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Mon 03 October 2022:

After winning the first round of voting in Brazil’s presidential election, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will face incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro in the second round.

Left-wing former president Lula came in at 47.97%, while right-wing Bolsonaro received 43.60%, the electoral office announced Sunday.

The second-round vote, extending what has been a tense and violent campaign by an additional four weeks, will take place on October 30.

On Sunday, there were long queues at polling stations that closed at 5pm local time (20:00 GMT).

About 156 million people were eligible to vote.

Da Silva, popularly known as Lula, went into election day the frontrunner, with recent opinion polls giving him a commanding lead and even a first-round victory. The strength of Bolsonaro’s support and the much tighter result dashed expectations of a quick resolution to the deep polarisation in the world’s fourth-largest democracy.

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The result was much closer than expected as pre-election polls had Lula far ahead. Some experts suggested respondents had not declared their true favourites or made up their minds on election day.

Bolsonaro had questioned polls that showed him losing to Lula in the first round, saying they did not capture the enthusiasm he saw on the campaign trail. The 67-year-old former army captain hailed the result as a win.

“We beat the lie today,” he told reporters, referring to the pre-vote polls.

“Now the campaign is ours… I’m completely confident. We have a lot of positive accomplishments to show.”

If Lula wins the second round, he would be Brazil’s first democratic president to enter a third term. He was previously president from 2003-2010.

Many of Lula’s supporters associate the 76-year-old with Brazil’s golden age, when the economy boomed due to high commodity prices and the government used social programmes to lift millions out of abject poverty.

His opponents see him as responsible for corruption and cronyism.

Bolsonaro’s supporters meanwhile see the incumbent as a defender of traditional family values and economic freedom.

Lula has accused Bolsonaro of genocide because of his hesitant coronavirus policy, while Bolsonaro calls Lula a thief as the former president was convicted for corruption and spent time in prison.

The election has left Latin America’s largest economy extremely divided.

At least three Lula supporters have been killed by suspected Bolsonaro supporters in recent months. The incumbent’s supporters have repeatedly openly called for a military coup.

During his four years in office, Bolsonaro has largely isolated the Latin American country internationally, rejecting proposals to protect the rainforest and hardly ever travelling abroad.

Brazil’s election has great significance for the rest of the world as the winner will shape the country’s environmental policies. As a huge carbon sink, the Amazon plays an important role in the fight against global climate change.

Lula campaigned on environmental and climate policies and pledged to end illegal gold mining and fight against deforestation.

More than 156 million people were eligible to vote in Sunday’s presidential election and voting is compulsory. Lawmakers, senators and governors were also being elected on the same day.

Lula rose from poverty to the presidency and is credited with building an extensive social welfare programme during his 2003-2010 tenure that helped lift tens of millions out of poverty.

But he is also remembered for his administration’s involvement in vast corruption scandals that entangled politicians and business executives.

Lula’s convictions for corruption and money laundering led to 19 months in prison that meant he could not run in the 2018 presidential race that polls indicated he led against Bolsonaro.

The Supreme Court later annulled Lula’s convictions on the grounds that the judge was biased and colluded with prosecutors.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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