Lula re-elected as Brazil president as opponent Flávio Bolsonaro rejects result
Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva (Getty Images)
Brazil’s electoral court has declared Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva the winner of the presidential runoff. Opponent Flávio Bolsonaro rejected the result, despite Lula’s lead of more than 4 million votes.
The official result was set out in the TSE announcement of Lula’s re-election. It said Lula won 64,256,232 votes (51.79% of valid votes), while Flávio Bolsonaro received 59,826,041 votes (48.21%).
Speaking to supporters after the result was called, Lula said: “I want to tell you that, as we win elections, we no longer have adversaries. I have to govern for 215 million… I have to govern for all cities.”
What were the official vote and turnout figures?
The TSE said more than 158 million voters were eligible to vote in the second round, and that 128.2 million people turned out.
Abstention was put at around 19.2%, below the 21.08% recorded in the first round.
With 100% of the vote counted, Brazil’s electoral court announced that Lula’s lead was nearly 4.4 million votes.
What has Flávio Bolsonaro said and what happens next?
Flávio Bolsonaro rejected the election result, as Lula called for the country to move on from the campaign.
Lula is a left-wing politician and long-time leader of the Workers’ Party (PT), and a polarising figure in Brazil. He previously served as president in the 2000s and returned to office after defeating Jair Bolsonaro in 2022.
Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator and the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, campaigned on a tough-on-crime message. While campaigning, he promised Brazil would sign up to the Shield of the Americas, a US-led security initiative targeting so-called “narco-terrorism”.
When Lula defeated Jair Bolsonaro in 2022, the election victory was confirmed by Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court.
