- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a vocal critic Donald Trump, was reelected Sunday in a result that provides relief to critics of widening U.S. influence in Latin America.
With 100% of the vote counted, Brazil’s electoral court announced that the soon to be 81-year-old Lula had a lead of nearly 4.4 million votes over opponent Flávio Bolsonaro, giving him 51.8% of the total vote. Bolsonaro quickly refused to concede defeat and asked for the election results to be annulled after an evening of chaos at some polling places that followed a last-minute decision to extend voting by two hours.
Bolsonaro is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, whom Lula defeated to take the presidency in 2022.
Lula’s triumph bucks a regional trend of victories for right-of-center presidential candidates allied with Trump. It also means Latin America’s largest economy, with a GDP of $2.6 trillion per year, will likely continue defying Trump’s demands, despite the pressure of increased tariffs.
The cheating happened with Meta favouring Bolsonaro campaign, and local polititians actively trying to stop people from voting by cutting public transportation on voting day. Bolsonaro accused Lula of corruption, so Lula opened his bank and telephone accounts publicly while Bolsonaro refused to do the same to prove himself clean. Bolsonaro carved his rejection rate himself among anyone with open eyes.
Also, both candidates asked for the time extension.