Lula da Silva wins the Brazil election - how will Bolsonaro react?

By Reda Samih

SKPOST — Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been elected the next president of Brazil in a nail-biter, defeating right-wing incumbent Jair Bolsonaro with 50.9% of the votes to Bolsonaro's 49.10% with over 99% of the votes counted.

Brazil is presently in a dire state with immense inequality, poverty, and a clear and present struggle of overcoming the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. This alongside their political fragmentation and substantial polarization has led to great tensions within the nation going into the 2022 election, and will lead to a great struggle for Lula da Silva shall he take office.

Lula da Silva, despite being on the left wing of the political spectrum, has attempted to reassure moderates in order to overcome intense political fragmentation in Brazil. He's done this through the creation of a broad alliance that spans the left to the center-right, even including those who have been historical opponents of his such as the PSDB. Despite this outreach however, Lula da Silva has remained somewhat ambiguous in regard to his economic vision going into the election, only stating some proposals such as exempting low-income earners from paying the income tax.

As tradition in Brazil, the losing candidate generally speaks first to accept their loss to concede the election, however Bolsonaro has yet to do so. He has not yet made a public statement about the election despite this tradition which makes this an out of the ordinary circumstance thus far. This could especially be of concern due to Bolsonaro's previous claims of voting systems being at risk of fraud.