Lula defeats Bolsonaro and wins unprecedented third presidential term

Almost 12 years after he left office for the last time, Brazilians elected Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for an unprecedented third term as president. He scored a historical win over far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, mustering 50.8 percent of the runoff vote and clinching the race by one of the tightest margins in Brazilian democratic history.

“I’m resurrected. They tried to bury me alive.”

Lula’s triumph came as the result of efforts to build a broad coalition, including not only left-leaning sectors but also moderate conservatives, who not long ago were staunchly opposed to the idea of Lula returning to power. 

They were brought onside as a result of Mr. Bolsonaro’s threats against Brazilian democracy. To them, Lula was the only candidate capable of toppling the far-right president.

But the country will remain on edge until inauguration day on January 1. The question now is whether Mr. Bolsonaro will accept defeat.

The president has diligently sought to build his own version of “The Big Lie,” Donald Trump’s myth that the U.S. 2020 election was stolen from him. 

For years, Mr. Bolsonaro has sowed distrust in Brazil’s electoral system. And during the past week, his team suggested that radio stations around the country were not giving his campaign ads the same airtime as Lula’s — which he is entitled to in the runoff. 

Some of his allies even vented the idea of postponing the election, a blatantly unconstitutional suggestion.

Election Day was shrouded in controversy, amid widespread reports of the pro-Bolsonaro Federal Highway Police allegedly suppressing votes by arbitrarily blocking key highways in pro-Lula states.

It is unclear how much these incidents may have affected the final result, though head electoral justice Alexandre de Moraes assured that no-one was stopped from voting.

“We didn’t face an adversary. We faced the power of the Brazilian state put to the service of the incumbent to prevent us from winning,” said Lula, in his victory speech.

By voting Jair Bolsonaro out of office, Brazilians may have prevented their country’s democratic backsliding from reaching a point of no return. Recent history shows that a second term emboldens strongman leaders into more frontal assaults against institutions that can provide checks and balances. 

That was the case in Hungary with Viktor Orbán, Nicaragua with Daniel Ortega, or Venezuela with Hugo Chávez.

Prior...