Brazil election: Lula defeats Bolsonaro in presidential comeback

Leftist Luis Inacio Lula da Silva defeated President Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday in an election runoff that marked a stunning comeback for Lula and the end of Brazil’s most right-wing government in decades.

Lula won 50.9 per cent of votes compared with 49.1 per cent for Bolsonaro, the Supreme Electoral Court said, declaring former president Lula the winner. The 77-year-old Lula’s inauguration is scheduled for Jan. 1.

The vote was a rebuke for the fiery far-right populism of Bolsonaro, who emerged from the back benches of Congress to forge a novel conservative coalition but lost support as Brazil ran up one of the worst death tolls of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As Mike Armstrong reports, the election was very tense and served as a referendum on two very different versions of Brazil’s future.