KATHMANDU – Left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeated his right-wing rival Flávio Bolsonaro in the presidential election run-off overnight.
In the first round on 4 October, Bolsonaro had won with 47%, falling short of an outright majority and triggering the second round. In yesterday’s voting, Lula came out on top with 51.79%.
Born into a poor family in 1945, Lula sold peanuts as a child, only learning to read aged 10.
He became a metal worker in his teens, losing a finger in an industrial accident in the 1960s.
His political journey started in the trade union movement, where he was elected head of Metalworkers’ Union in 1975. Five years later, he founded the Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores or PT) – Brazil’s first major socialist party.
It took him more than two decades to win the presidency, which he first did in 2002.
Lula made social equality a central plank of his early premiership, funnelling billions into grant programmes like the Bolsa Familia.
He was jailed in 2018 following a huge bribery scandal, dubbed Operation Car Wash, and served more than 18 months.
His convictions were overturned by a Supreme Court Judge in 2021, allowing him to run for and secure a third term as president in 2022.