Lula Defeats Flávio Bolsonaro With 51.76% Votes To Win Brazil’s Closely Fought Presidential Run-Off

· Free Press Journal

Rio de Janeiro: Left leader, 80-year-old former factory worker and current Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won re-election on Sunday, has he defeated Flávio Bolsonaro, in a heated run-off after being tied during the first round of elections.

According to Brazilian Media and projections by Datafolha a, with 99.77% of the votes counted, the incumbent president had 51.76% of the valid votes in the second round of the election, compared to 48.24% for Bolsonaro junior.

Victory makes the Workers' Party member extend his record as the second longest-serving holder of the office, behind Getúlio Vargas. By the end of his last term, he will have been in power for 16 years, a record in Brazil's democratic history.

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The victory follows a campaign dominated by concerns over the cost of living, crime and corruption. CNN reported that it is also the first time since the return of direct presidential elections in 1989 that a candidate has won the presidency after finishing second in the first round.

Lula, who first governed Brazil between 2003 and 2010, has faced a tough reelection battle because of concerns about the cost of living and security. Bolsonaro made a tough-on-crime approach the cornerstone of his campaign and pledged to bring down food costs.

Both Presidential candidates had been hit by corruption allegations involving family members and allies. Lula had spent more than a year in prison on corruption convictions that were eventually annulled.

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The results of Sunday's run-off came after a heated election day, with voting being extended by two hours following last-minute pleas from both candidates to electoral authorities.

According to CNN, Lula's victory will have repercussions beyond Brazil, keeping Latin America’s largest country on a more independent foreign-policy path under Lula, who has emphasized Brazil’s sovereignty and closer ties with the Global South and China amid tensions with the Trump administration.

Lula began his political career in the 1970s as a union leader. He then helped found the Workers' Party, which he represented as a presidential candidate three times until he finally won it in 2002. He was re-elected four years later and was succeeded by one of his cabinet ministers, Dilma Rousseff, in 2010. She was re-elected in 2014.

(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

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