Lula defeats Bolsonaro in Brazil's presidential election


Brazil's next president is Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the leftist Worker's Party, the country's electoral authority announced Sunday.
Da Silva, known as Lula, defeated right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who is the first sitting Brazilian president to lose a re-election bid since 1985. With more than 99 percent of the votes counted, Lula is beating Bolsonaro 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent.
Lula, 77, served two terms as Brazil's president from 2003 to 2010. After leaving office, he was convicted of corruption and money laundering and served 19 months in prison. His convictions were later overturned by Brazil's Supreme Court, which ruled that the judge in the case colluded with prosecutors.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Lula ran on a pro-democracy, social justice, and environment platform. During Bolsonaro's presidency, Brazil saw the worst deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in 15 years, and he was criticized for his lax handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and spreading of conspiracy theories. His supporters applaud him for his defense of conservative ideals and brash way of speaking. Going into this election, Bolsonaro questioned the security of Brazil's electronic voting machines, and recent polls show 75 percent of his supporters trust the voting system only a little or not at all, The New York Times reports.
The close results show that Lula will be leading a sharply divided country, political analyst Thomas Traumann told The Associated Press. "The huge challenge that Lula has will be to pacify the country," he said. "People are not only polarized on political matters, but also have different values, identity, and opinions. What's more, they don't care what the other side's values, identities, and opinions are."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Brazil’s Bolsonaro sentenced to 27 years for coup attempt
Speed Read Bolsonaro was convicted of attempting to stay in power following his 2022 election loss
-
House posts lewd Epstein note attributed to Trump
Speed Read The estate of Jeffrey Epstein turned over the infamous 2003 birthday note from President Donald Trump
-
Supreme Court allows 'roving' race-tied ICE raids
Speed Read The court paused a federal judge's order barring agents from detaining suspected undocumented immigrants in LA based on race
-
Voting: Trump's ominous war on mail ballots
Feature Donald Trump wants to sign an executive order banning mail-in ballots for the 2026 midterms
-
South Korea to fetch workers detained in Georgia raid
Speed Read More than 300 South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant will be released
-
DC sues Trump to end Guard 'occupation'
Speed Read D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb argues that the unsolicited military presence violates the law
-
RFK Jr. faces bipartisan heat in Senate hearing
Speed Read The health secretary defended his leadership amid CDC turmoil and deflected questions about the restricted availability of vaccines
-
White House defends boat strike as legal doubts mount
Speed Read Experts say there was no legal justification for killing 11 alleged drug-traffickers