Lula celebrates after declared winner in election

With 99.97% of the votes tallied, da Silva secured 50.9% of the vote and Bolsonaro 49.10% in one of the most significant and bruising elections in the country’s history. It is a stunning return to power for the 77-year-old former president, who led Brazil from 2003-2010. Da Silva is promising to govern beyond his party.

He wants to bring in centrists and even some leaning to the right who voted for him for the first time, and to restore the country’s more prosperous past. Lula takes power on 1 January 2023 and will be charged with rebuilding and reuniting a nation that has been left damaged and bitterly divided.