Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva leads incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, and the two will face off later this month.
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva came out ahead of incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro during Brazil’s election on Sunday, but neither reached the over 50 percent threshold needed to win the contest. A second round run-off election will now be held on October 30 to determine the winner.
Results showed Lula ahead with 48.2 percent of the vote while Bolsonaro has 43.4 percent with just about 100 percent of ballots counted.
Da Silva, who is commonly referred to as Lula, had been polling well-ahead of Bolsonaro in the days leading up to the election. He served as president between 2001 and 2010, and «governed in a moment of an abundance of resources and popularity,» according to Bruna Santos, a senior adviser at the Wilson Center’s Brazil Institute.
Lula was jailed in 2018 after being convicted on corruption charges and sentenced to 12 years. However, he was released from prison in 2019 and his conviction was later vacated by Brazil’s highest court. In April, the UN’s Human Rights Committee found Lula’s investigation and prosecution «violated his right to be tried by an impartial tribunal, his right to privacy and his political rights.»
Here’s what Lula tweeted Sunday night (translated into English): «Tomorrow we will be on the streets to win the elections. We don’t have a break. We are going to work hard, and here in São Paulo we are going to choose @Haddad_Fernando and we are going to travel the states of Brazil.
Lula’s victory comes as Bolsonaro attempted to cast doubt on Brazil’s election system and, without evidence, accused it of being vulnerable to fraud, stating, according to CNN that if didn’t get «at least 60 percent,» of the vote the public should be suspicious of the result.
