Celebrations went deep into the night Sunday on Sao Paulo's Paulista Avenue, as supporters of incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva marked the end of one of Brazil's most bitterly disputed presidential elections.
Lula received 51.79 percent of the valid votes, compared with 48.21 percent for Flavio Bolsonaro, the Liberal Party's presidential candidate and son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, according to results released by Brazil's Superior Electoral Court on Sunday night.
Lula will be sworn in on Jan. 5, 2027, for a four-year term, marking his fourth election as Brazil's president.
"I am here to celebrate democracy. This is a historic day and I want to be in history books," said Marjorie Sherali, a supporter of Lula.
Lula thanked the crowd for a runoff campaign that turned a projected defeat into victory. Every final poll had him losing. And since Brazil returned to direct elections in 1989, no candidate had ever lost the first round and won the runoff.
Supporters said the president got it right: grassroots mobilization, more than anything, got people to the polls -- the highest participation in two decades -- and beat the right-wing opposition.
"He won't be able to govern on his own up there anymore, with the people on the sidelines. He'll have to bring them in. Because with Congress, with the Senate in the hands of the Liberal Party, in the hands of the far right, he won't be able to govern without his base in the streets," said Wesley Messias, another Lula's supporter.
Among Flavio Bolsonaro's voters, the mood is disappointment.
"I am mad about this result! Flavio Bolsonaro had to win, not Lula. These people are crazy to vote for a thief like him to be the president," said Maria Dolores, a supporter for Flavio Bolsonaro.
Lula da Silva won his fourth term two days before his 81st birthday. Yet the work ahead is heavier than the celebration: a Congress that moved sharply to the right, and nearly 60 million voters who wanted someone else.
Cheers erupt as President Lula wins historic fourth term in runoff election
Cheers erupt as President Lula wins historic fourth term in runoff election
