Brazil’s leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pulled off a dramatic comeback on Sunday as he clinched election victory against right-wing senator Flavio Bolsonaro, who trounced him in the first round.
The leftist icon, who turns 81 on Tuesday, defied all projections to win an unprecedented fourth term at the helm of Latin America’s largest country.
According to official results, he won 51.75 percentof the votes to 48.25 percent for Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who had entered election day confident with his lead in the polls.
With Lula’s victory, Brazil staved off a conservative wave that has seen numerous countries — such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Peru — all shift right, backed by US President Donald Trump.
After a campaign marred by scandal and mud-slinging, Sunday’s vote plunged into chaos after a last-minute Supreme Court ruling extending voting by two hours, at the request of Lula who said buses had been pulled from circulation in various cities, barring citizens from voting.
Flavio Bolsonaro also requested an extension in some parts of the country due to heavy rains, but his camp lashed out at the country-wide extension.
“Either we win. Or we win. Consider yourself warned,” pro-Bolsonaro lawmaker Nikolas Ferreira wrote on X as the votes streamed in.
The bitter campaign laid bare the deep divisions in the country of over 200 million people.
“It’s a disgrace. We’ve never had anything like this in Brazil, and now they’ve come up with the idea of extending the election period by two hours,” said Aurelio Junior, 45, a dentist in Brasilia.
Jacqueline Maria Lima de Franca, 34, a business owner in Rio de Janeiro backing Lula said it was “more than fair…everyone should have the right to vote, and that was being neglected.”
