LULA DA SILVA NARROWLY DEFEATS JAIR BOLSONARO IN BRAZIL’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Mon 31 October 2022:

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva narrowly defeated incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil’s presidential election, , but with incumbent Jair Bolsonaro still not conceding defeat there were concerns the far-right contender might challenge the result.

The country’s election commission reports that on Sunday, Lula won 50.8 percent of the vote versus Bolsonaro’s 49.2 percent.

“Today the only winner is the Brazilian people,” da Silva told the crowds gathered at a Sao Paulo hotel. “This isn’t a victory of mine or the Workers’ Party, nor the parties that supported me in campaign. It’s the victory of a democratic movement that formed above political parties, personal interests and ideologies so that democracy came out victorious.”

The streets of Sao Paulo’s downtown were flooded with the sound of honking horns as soon as Lula took the lead after Bolsonaro had led for the majority of the vote count.

It turned, shouted residents in Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema neighborhood.

The election was the most divisive in Brazil since the country’s restoration to democracy in 1985 following a military dictatorship that Bolsonaro, a former army captain, remembers with fondness and Lula, a former union leader, has agitated against.

The election also marked the first time a president in office lost his bid for reelection. The previous closest contest, in 2014, was decided by a margin of about 3.5 million votes; this one had a margin of little over two million votes.

In Brazil, it is customary for the losing candidate to speak first and concede defeat, but Bolsonaro made no public remarks following the announcement of Lula as the election’s victor hours earlier.

Two very different and passionately opposed future plans for Brazil were the subject of the 2022 election.

While Bolsonaro ran on a platform of consolidating a significant rightward tilt in Brazilian politics following a presidency that saw one of the world’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks and extensive deforestation in the Amazon, Lula campaigned on promises of greater social and environmental responsibility.

During his previous term in government, Lula is credited with creating a comprehensive social welfare program, which helped tens of millions of people enter the middle class and presided over an economic boom. Over 80% of people approved of him as he left office.

He is also remembered for his administration’s involvement in widespread corruption, which was made public by extensive investigations. Due to his incarceration in 2018, Da Silva was unable to compete against Bolsonaro, who was a fringe congressman at the time.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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