Lula to reclaim presidency after beating Bolsonaro

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP):

Brazilians delivered a very tight victory to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a bitter presidential election, giving the leftist former president another shot at power in a rejection of incumbent Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right politics.

Da Silva received 50.9 per cent of the votes and Bolsonaro 49.1 per cent, according to the country’s election authority. Yet the morning after the results came in – and congratulations had poured in from world leaders – Bolsonaro still had yet to publicly concede or react in any way, even as truckers blockaded some roads across the country in protest.

Bolsonaro’s campaign had made repeated – unproven – claims of possible electoral manipulation before the vote, raising fears that, if he lost, he would not accept defeat and try to challenge the results.

For da Silva, the high-stakes election was a stunning comeback. His imprisonment for corruption sidelined him from the 2018 election won by Bolsonaro, who has used the presidency to promote conservative social values, while also delivering incendiary speeches and testing democratic institutions.

“Today, the only winner is the Brazilian people,” da Silva said in a speech on Sunday evening at a hotel in downtown São Paulo. “It’s the victory of a democratic movement that formed above political parties, personal interests, and ideologies so that democracy came out victorious.”

Da Silva is promising to govern beyond his party. He says he wants to bring in centrists and even some leaning to the right, and to restore the kind of prosperity the country enjoyed when he last served as president from 2003-2010. Yet, he faces headwinds in a politically polarised society.

Bolsonaro’s four years in office have been marked by proclaimed conservatism and defence of traditional Christian values. He claimed that his rival’s return to power would usher in communism, legalised drugs, abortion, and the persecution of churches – things that didn’t happen during da Silva’s earlier eight years in office.

This was the country’s tightest election since its return to democracy in 1985, and the first time that a sitting president failed to win re-election. Just over two million votes separated the two candidates; the previous closest race, in 2014, was decided by a margin of roughly 3.5 million votes.

Some of Bolsonaro’s supporters outside his home in Rio on Sunday night screamed about electoral fraud. And overnight, truck drivers who backed Bolsonaro blocked several roads across the country, including a stretch of the Rio de Janeiro-São Paulo highway, local media reported. Videos posted on social media early Monday morning showed traffic at a complete halt. Similar reports popped up in several other states.

Da Silva’s win extended a wave of recent leftist triumphs across the region, including Chile, Colombia and Argentina.

The president-elect will inherit a nation straining against itself after he is inaugurated on January 1, said Thomas Traumann, an independent political analyst who compared Sunday’s results to Biden’s 2020 victory.

“The huge challenge that Lula has will be to pacify the country,” he said. “People are not only polarised on political matters, but also have different values, identity and opinions. What’s more, they don’t care what the other side’s values, identities and opinions are.”

Among world leaders offering congratulations on Sunday night was US President Joe Biden, who in a statement highlighted the country’s “free, fair, and credible elections”. The European Union also commended the electoral authority for its effectiveness and transparency throughout the campaign.

Bolsonaro had been leading throughout the first half of the count and, as soon as da Silva overtook him, cars in the streets of downtown São Paulo began honking their horns. People in the streets of Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema neighbourhood could be heard shouting, “It turned!”

Da Silva’s headquarters in a downtown São Paulo hotel only erupted once the final result was announced, underscoring the tension that was a hallmark of this race.

“Four years waiting for this,” said Gabriela Souto, one of the few supporters allowed in due to heavy security.

Outside Bolsonaro’s home in Rio, ground-zero for his support base, a woman atop a truck delivered a prayer over a speaker, then sang excitedly, trying to generate some energy as the tally grew for da Silva. But supporters decked out in green and yellow barely responded. Many perked up when the national anthem played, singing along loudly with hands over their hearts.

For months, it appeared that da Silva was headed for easy victory as he kindled nostalgia for his presidency, when Brazil’s economy was booming.