Former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva clinched victory over his right-wing rival Jair Bolsonaro in a tightly contested second round of the Brazilian election on Sunday. The country’s election authority announced Lula’s narrow win with 50.9% of the vote to Bolsonaro’s 49.1%.
“This isn’t a victory of mine or the Workers’ Party… It’s the victory of a democratic movement that formed above political parties, personal interests and ideologies so that democracy came out victorious,” Lula told a cheering crowd of supporters in Sao Paulo on Sunday night.
The president-elect acknowledged that following such a tight race a challenge to his future mandate will be “immense,” and stressed that “it is necessary to rebuild the very soul of this country, recover generosity, solidarity, respect for differences and love for others.”
Lula, who is set to take office on 1 January 2023, promised to be a president for all 215 million Brazilians, not just those who voted for him. “There are not two Brazils. We are one country, one people – a great nation.”
Lula, who governed Brazil from 2003 to 2010, was barred from running for president in 2018 after being jailed on corruption charges that were later overturned.
