Brazil's presidential election held the second round of voting on the 30th. Foreign media sources pointed out that after 98% of the votes were cast, former President Lula (pictured) led incumbent President Bolsonaro with 50.8% of the votes. successfully elected.

(AFP)

[Central News Agency] Former Brazilian President Lula defeated incumbent Bolsonaro in Brazil's presidential election.

From a former president to a prisoner and now to the throne again, staged a political surprise comeback show.

The Brazilian election will be dominated by leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 77, against right-wing Jair Bolsonaro, 67.

Various local opinion polls in Brazil before the election showed that Lula is expected to win the election with more than 50% of the votes in the first round of voting on October 2. As a result, Lula won only 47.9% of the votes in the first round. Bolsonaro (Jair Bolsonaro) won 43.7% of the votes, which was much higher than expected, and the two entered the second round of the runoff.

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Agence France-Presse reported that after more than 99% of the votes were counted in the second round of the runoff today, election officials announced that Lula was elected the new Brazilian president with 51% of the votes, beating Bolsonaro's 49%.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) pointed out that Lula is a former trade union leader whose main political views include increasing protection measures in the Amazon region, eliminating hunger by strengthening income transfer programs, and restoring multilateral international policies to regain regional leadership; right-wing populist Bolsona Lowe, a former army captain and a congressional backbencher, whose main demands are to continue pension reform and expand it into a reformed government, vow to fight gender diversity and govern the country according to Christian principles, and promote easy access to firearms.

The BBC pointed out that it was no accident that Lula chose Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon, as the final battleground during the election campaign. His consideration was that his opponent, current President Jair Bolsonaro (Jair Bolsonaro), has been accused of destroying the Amazon rainforest. .

Lula is well aware that climate has become the most concerned agenda in Manaus and even in the whole country.

He often told the media emotionally: "The earth needs the most special attention from all of us. We must cherish our forests, our fauna, and most importantly, our people, because they are suffering and need to live with more dignity." BBC Katy Watson, a reporter based in South America, can't deny that Lula in front of her seems to have evolved compared to 20 years ago.

The "New York Times" reported that in 2017, Lula was sentenced to a severe prison sentence in federal prison on charges of corruption. He spent 23 hours a day in a separate cell with a treadmill. The legendary political career of the former lion of the Latin American left seems to be In the end, the Supreme Court dramatically overturned the original judgment and constitutional interpretation, and Lula was released, opening an incredible political rebirth.

After Brazil's Supreme Court ruled last year that the judge who tried Lula's corruption case was biased, his corruption conviction was annulled, lifting the last shackles of Lula's re-election bid. For more than a year, Lula has been ranked in various polls. lead.

Lula was once hailed by former US President Barack Obama as "the most popular politician on the planet".

When he left office after two terms in 2011, his approval rating was as high as 80%, but he then became the centerpiece of a government bribery case that led to nearly 300 prisoners.

During his campaign, Lula compared himself to former South African President Nelson Mandela, India's Mahatma Gandhi and American civil rights fighter Martin R.

Luther.

Martin Luther King Jr..

All three were political prisoners, but after their release, their careers flourished.

"I'm sure the same thing will happen in Brazil," he said at a campaign event this month.

Lula, a factory worker, was the son of an illiterate peasant worker with only the fifth grade of primary school. When he was 19 years old as a worker in an auto parts factory, he accidentally lost his left pinky finger, which became a powerful working-class mark on Lula.

He likes to talk about beer, cachaca, and flank steak, all of which are full of images of the Brazilian subaltern.

Lula has been a force in politics for decades, leading Brazil's political transition from conservatism to embracing leftist and working-class interests.

The Brazilian Workers' Party, which he founded in 1980, has won 4 of 8 presidential elections since the fall of Brazil's military dictatorship in 1988, and the remaining 4 have also entered the runoff.

During his presidency from 2003 to 2010, Lula helped lift 20 million Brazilians out of poverty, revitalized Brazil's oil industry, and won the World Cup and the Summer Olympics, putting Brazil on the world stage.

But Lula's tenure also allowed a massive commission case to spread throughout the government, with many of Lula's party allies convicted of taking bribes.

Although his corruption conviction was finally annulled, it was not the same as proving his innocence.

Lula won the election in part thanks to his old-school, grassroots approach.

He visited all parts of the country, and he was always in a position to fight.

He also played the safety card, skipped presidential debates, offered few specifics on his political views, and declined most exclusive interviews, including the New York Times.

Lula's camp has forged a broad coalition of communists and corporate capitalists, picking Geraldo Alckmin, the center-right former governor of Sao Paulo state, who was Lula's 2006 presidential rival, as his deputy.

Lula took advantage of the unpopular incumbent Bolsonaro.

Polls show that about half of Brazilians say they never support Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro's devastating environmental policies, preferring home remedies over a COVID-19 vaccine, and cracking down on political opponents, journalists, judges and healthcare professionals, have angered many voters.

Lula, like most successful politicians, speaks with hype but lacks specifics; he often refers to the Brazilian elite as "them" and the general public as "we", creating opposition among the people to reinforce his own. exposition.

For more than 40 years, Lula's long-established cult of personality in the public eye has made him far more popular than his own party.

At a rally in Rio in late September, Vinicius Rodrigues, a 28-year-old history student, handed out leaflets for another communist party, saying he was "particularly supportive of Lula" and just disliked the Brazilian Labour Party.

Now the former union leader is back in the spotlight, this time preparing to take the helm in Brazil, Latin America's largest country with a population of 217 million, on a mission to erase Bolsonaro's record.

Lula's election is another major "left turn" in Latin America in recent times.

Since 2018, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Peru have all seen waves of leftists pulling down incumbents.

Brazilian political analyst Creomar de Souza said immature democracies tend to revolve around a single person rather than a movement or set of ideas.

"Several young democracies are desperately trying to move forward; the individual is the key piece of the game," he said.

Agence France-Presse believes that the dispute between Lula and Bolsonaro is a microcosm of Brazil's polarization.

The left sees Bolsonaro as a dangerous threat to the country's democracy and world status, while the conservative right sees Lula as a criminal, at the heart of a massive corruption regime that erodes the country's institutions. Many Brazilian voters say they stand up To oppose one of them instead of supporting the preferred candidate.

How to bridge the social divide after the election is a big challenge.