T24 Foreign News
Left-wing ex-president in the upcoming elections in Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvathe current far-right President Jair BolsonaroHe became the first, but could not prevent the selection from going to the second round.
With about 99.5 percent of the vote counted, Lula received 48.3 percent of the vote. Bolsonaro, on the other hand, was 5 points behind his opponent with 43.3 percent, far above the results he received in the polls. The far-right leader had fallen to the 33 percent band in the polls last week.
As Lula failed to pass 50 percent, a runoff for president will be held on October 30 between Lula and Bolsonaro.
“The fight will continue until our final victory,” Lula, who led Brazil from 2003-2010, told media at a hotel in São Paulo.
Lula, who could not attend the 2018 elections, which Bolsonaro won, due to the corruption charges that were later dropped, said: “We will win the elections. We just have a little extra time now.”
Chairman of Lula’s Labor Party Gleisi Hoffmann, pointing out that the results received more than 56 million votes by the left-wing leader, stated that “there is nothing they should be upset about or that they did not fall short of expectations”. In Brazil, many progressives and leftists hoped that Lula would win from the first round against Bolsonaro by a substantial margin.
Bolsonaro said in a speech on Sunday night that he would spend time convincing “the poorest sections of the population that a far-right government is better for them than a left-wing government”.
The far-right leader said, “I know that many people are using the game considering the current situation in Brazil. Especially the price increases are disturbing. I know that many people want change, but sometimes people come and go.”
Bolsonaro said: ‘Prison, death or victory’
The second-round election on October 30 is seen by many as the most critical since the 1985 election, which put Brazil back on the path to democracy. Many in Brazil are worried that if Bolsonaro loses the election, he will not accept the results.
There are also concerns that if Lula wins, radical right-wing groups may take to the streets and there may be violence.
Bolsonaro said in a speech last year that the election would have three outcomes for him: “Jail, death or victory”. The Brazilian President has said in the past without providing evidence that the country’s electronic voting devices are unreliable.
Lula spent 580 days in jail
The conviction of Lula da Silva, who was imprisoned for 580 days due to corruption cases, prevented Bolsonaro from being a candidate in the 2018 elections. Sentences and corruption cases for Lula released in November 2019, Judge in charge of these cases in 2021 Sergio MoroThe Supreme Court ruled that .