Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won the second round of the presidential election after counting 100% of the popular vote. 50.85% of the population voted for him.
Incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro came in second with a narrow margin, with 49.15% of voters voting for him.
“I believe that I have had a renaissance in Brazilian politics. They tried to bury me alive, and now I'm here to run the country. <…> This is not a victory for me, not for the parties that supported me in this campaign. This is the victory of a huge democratic movement that has formed over political parties, self-interests and ideologies,” da Silva said in his victory speech.
Lula da Silva becomes president for the third time: he was first elected to this post in 2002. Despite scandals and conflicting opinions about his policies , in particular, about economic measures, he was able to be re-elected for a second term, and in 2011 he left office with a record approval rating of 90%.
In 2017, Lula da Silva was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison for corruption and money laundering. Later the term was extended to 12 years 11 months. However, already in 2019, Silva was released after 580 days of imprisonment in connection with the decision of the Supreme Court on the illegality of the entry into force of the sentence until all appeals were exhausted. In 2021, Brazil's Federal Supreme Court dropped all corruption and money laundering charges against him due to lack of evidence.
