Lula wins fourth term in Brazil: leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has won an unprecedented fourth term in office, defeating Flavio Bolsonaro in a runoff vote held on Sunday. Official results gave Lula 51.8 per cent of the vote against 48.2 per cent for his rival, a margin of around 4.4 million votes.
Flavio Bolsonaro refused to accept the loss. In a brief speech in Brasilia, he said it was impossible to recognise the result and that he would seek an annulment of the election. His father, former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year jail term for attempting a coup after losing to Lula in the country’s last election in 2022.
Sunday’s vote was marked by confusion after a Supreme Court ruling extended voting by two hours, as some polling stations had already closed. The move came at the request of Lula, who complained that buses had been pulled from circulation in various cities, barring citizens from voting. Flavio Bolsonaro had also requested an extension in some regions due to heavy rains, but he described the decision as unacceptable and a dirty trick.
Lula wins fourth term after first-round defeat
Lula’s victory is a comeback by any measure. He lost the first round, and no candidate who lost the first round has gone on to win the second in Brazil since 1989, the first direct election after the end of the country’s military dictatorship. After that defeat, the left swung into action with massive rallies under the slogan “Never Again Bolsonaro” and revamped its social media strategy.
The abstention rate fell from the first round, dropping from 21 per cent to 19 per cent. Fireworks and vuvuzelas rang out in Rio de Janeiro, while thousands of people dressed in red, the colour of Lula’s Workers’ Party, streamed into the streets of Sao Paulo to celebrate.
“People went to vote because we managed to convince them that voting was very important for ensuring democracy in the country,” Lula said in his first comments after the win.
A fierce social media battle drew in Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. Lula’s campaign accused the company of favouring his opponent with algorithmic manipulation. Meta denied this but acknowledged that some of Lula’s campaign ads had been mistakenly deactivated due to technical errors. “We are going to have to regulate them,” Lula said of social media companies after his win.
A country split in two
Lula heads into a fourth term with almost half of the nation having rejected him. He made a dramatic return to office in the 2022 elections after a corruption scandal saw him jailed for over 18 months. The charges were later annulled on procedural grounds.
In his third term, Lula oversaw a drop in inflation and unemployment, and lifted millions out of hunger. Yet many voters felt gloomy about the high cost of living and crime. Flavio Bolsonaro, 45, pitched himself as more moderate and jovial than his father and managed to galvanise conservatives as well as less ideological voters wanting something new.
“We’re in a deep hole, things are dire. People can barely afford to eat, buying meat is out of the question,” said Tereza Cristina Ramos, a 68-year-old retiree who voted in Rio de Janeiro.
Lula, who turns 81 on Tuesday, will be 85 by the end of his new term in 2030. He is also facing a hostile Congress dominated by the right. His campaign leaned heavily on the theme of sovereignty in the face of commercial and diplomatic pressure from US President Donald Trump’s United States. “This country will not accept being anyone’s backyard,” he said on Sunday.
Why this result matters beyond Brazil
Lula’s win stalls a conservative wave that has seen numerous countries in the region, such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru, all shift right, backed by Trump. He received congratulations from Chile’s far-right president Jose Antonio Kast and Ecuador’s right-wing Daniel Noboa, both close Trump allies.
