Brazil’s left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been re-elected for a fourth term after defeating right-wing challenger Flávio Bolsonaro by more than 4 million votes.
It comes after a round of elections in which Bolsonaro came in first but neither candidate secured a majority. This triggered a run-off – more on Brazil’s electoral process here.
Lula’s victory is the first time since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1988 that a candidate who lost the first round has gone on to win the presidency – here’s some key numbers behind his reversal in fortune.
How did he do it? A WhatsApp channel, which attracted 10.8 million supporters, and policy interventions have been credited as playing a crucial role in Lula’s win.
Bolsonaro is refusing to accept the result and says the election should be annulled after the Supreme Court extended voting by two hours – despite both sides having asked for extensions to voting hours before polls closed.
From Brasília, the BBC’s Ione Wells writes, Bolsonaro’s challenge is unlikely to succeed given there was a substantive and definitive margin of defeat.
Brazilians in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are split on the result, with one voter saying she is “overjoyed” with the result, while another believes “Brazil deserved something better” and the country will now “be stuck for four years” with a right wing congress.
That is among the challenges Lula will face, in addition to the task of uniting such a deeply polarised country, which may see these next four years more difficult than his three previous terms in office.
BBC
