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President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil lost to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva by a razor-thin margin in the runoff election, but the incumbent far-right politician refused to accept the loss on Sunday night, raising doubts that he would challenge the outcome. With 50.9 percent of the vote versus Bolsonaro’s 49.1 percent, the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) named Lula the next president. On January 1, the 77-year-old Lula will be inaugurated.
A devastating defeat for Bolsonaro, the first Brazilian incumbent to lose a presidential election, it was a spectacular comeback for the leftist former president.
Tens of thousands of his fans were jubilantly celebrating his triumph on Sao Paulo’s Paulista Avenue when Lula said, “So far, Bolsonaro has not contacted me to acknowledge my victory, and I don’t know whether he will call or if he will recognise my victory.”
The president won’t make any public statements until Monday, a source in the Bolsonaro campaign told Reuters. Requests for reaction from the Bolsonaro campaign went unanswered.
Bolsonaro made unfounded assertions that Brazil’s electronic voting system was susceptible to fraud when he publicly contemplated refusing to accept the election results last year.
Carla Zambelli, a close associate of Bolsonaro’s, tweeted, “I PROMISE you, I will be the biggest opposition that Lula has ever dreamt,” in apparent reference to the results.
With investors monitoring rumours regarding Lula’s cabinet and the possibility that Bolsonaro would contest the results, the financial markets might be in for a tumultuous week.
The vote was a rebuke for the ferocious far-right populism of Bolsonaro, who rose from the rear of Congress to form a radical conservative alliance but lost popularity as Brazil racked up one of the worst death tolls from the coronavirus outbreak.
Along with other European and Latin American leaders, US President Joe Biden praised Lula for winning “free, fair, and legitimate elections.”
Sunday’s election, according to international observers, was well run. According to a witness who spoke to Reuters, military auditors’ integrity checks of the voting system yielded no errors.
According to the highway operator, four truck drivers thought to be Bolsonaro supporters on Sunday stopped a roadway in Mato Grosso, a significant grain-producing state.
A guy said in a video that was going around the internet that truckers intended to block the country’s key roadways and demanded a military takeover to stop Lula from becoming president.
