Brazil’s Lula da Silva closely defeats Trump ally Flavio Bolsonaro to win historic fourth term

Brazil’s incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has defeated right-wing leader Flavio Bolsonaro, considered to be close to US President Donald Trump, to win a historic fourth term, defying all projections to remain at the helm of Latin America’s largest democracy.

Sunday’s elections saw Silva receive 51.75 per cent of the votes against Bolsonaro’s 48.25 per cent. Silva’s victory has halted the conservative wave in South America that saw countries such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Peru shift right.

“We managed to convince people that voting was extremely important to safeguard democracy in Brazil. We defeated foreign intervention through digital platforms. Brazil is no one’s backyard. We will change the way we run this country, we will make people participate more in decision-making process,” he after his victory.

Following Silva’s victory, celebrations erupted among his supporters. “A historic turning point for democracy,” Edinho Silva, who is the head of Lula’s Workers’ Party, said on social media. 

The chaos and the extension of voting

But Sunday’s polling saw a little chaos as well after the polling was extended by the Supreme Court for two hours following a request by Silva, who said that buses had been pulled from circulation in various cities, that barred citizens from voting.

Silva’s supporters and party workers blamed Bolsonaro of reducing bus availability to turn the elections in his favour. But on the contrary, Bolsonaro had also urged for an extension of voting in some areas following heavy rainfall.

This caused arguments between supporters of both sides, with Silva’s backers saying everyone deserve the right to vote. “This was more than fair… everyone should have the right to vote, and that was being neglected,” Jacqueline Maria Lima de Franca, 34, a business owner in Rio de Janeiro backing Lula told AFP.

But a Bolsonaro supporter described the extension of voting as 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, told AFP.

A tricky term expected?

Silva’s fourth term is expected to be tricky, as nearly half of the country had voted against him. By 2030, he will turn 85 years old. He will thus have spent 16 years in power. He is also facing a hostile Congress dominated by the right.

His options are also constrained by the economic outlook, with growth expected to slow. He has also come under renewed pressure to confront rampant insecurity in a country plagued by criminal factions that sow terror in working-class neighborhoods.

The president’s campaign leaned heavily on the theme of sovereignty in the face of commercial and diplomatic pressure from Trump’s United States. Voters must “choose a country where the flag is respected,” he said, his raspy voice more hoarse than ever after a tireless campaign. He accused his rival of wanting to “govern with the American flag.”

(With inputs from AFP)

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