Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won a fourth term, taking 51.79% of the vote to 48.21% for right-wing challenger Flávio Bolsonaro in Sunday's runoff, the BBC reported. The gap was about 4.4 million votes.
A historic comeback
- First-round loss: Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, led the Oct. 4 first round with 47% to Lula's 45%, according to the BBC.
- No precedent: Lula is the first president since the return of democracy to win after finishing second in the first round, the BBC said. The Guardian noted that no first-round runner-up had previously turned a runoff around.
- Turnout push: Lula's camp focused on turnout after 33 million people skipped the first round, and Sunday saw the biggest drop in abstention between rounds since 1989, the BBC reported.
Bolsonaro refuses to concede
Bolsonaro called the result "inexplicable" and "impossible" and said it should be annulled. Electoral law experts told BBC Brasil the chances of that are remote. Polls were extended two hours Sunday evening after both campaigns made requests, and Supreme Court President Kassio Nunes Marques said the extension did not cause problems for the count, the BBC reported.
Jair Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a failed coup after losing to Lula in 2022, the Guardian reported. Lula, already the longest-serving president in Brazil's modern history, turns 81 on Tuesday.
Markets reacted sharply: the iShares MSCI Brazil ETF fell 26% in premarket trading Monday, Yahoo Finance reported.