Lula Defeats Bolsonaro to Become Brazil's President: Election Authority

SAO PAULO—Leftist Luis Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday defeated conservative President Jair Bolsonaro to become the country’s next president, Brazil’s election authority said. Lula won 50.9 percent of votes compared with 49.1 percent for Bolsonaro with over 99 percent of voting machines counted, which the Supreme Electoral Court said was enough to "mathematically define" the outcome of the race. The 77-year-old former president Lula's inauguration is scheduled for Jan. 1. Voting is electronic and the results were announced within two hours of polling stations closing at 5 p.m. Bolsonaro remained silent on Sunday night after the results were announced. He did not make a call to Lula, according to campaign advisers. Foreign leaders from U.S. President Joe Biden to France's Emmanuel Macron to Argentina's Alberto Fernandez offered Lula messages of congratulations. Lula has vowed a return to state-driven economic growth and social policies. He also promises to combat destruction of the Amazon rainforest and make Brazil a leader in global climate talks. A former union leader born into poverty, Lula organized strikes against Brazil's military government in the 1970s. His two-term presidency was marked by a commodity-driven economic boom. However, his Workers Party was later tarred by a deep recession and a record-breaking corruption scandal that jailed him for 19 months on bribery convictions, which were overturned by the Supreme Court last year. Bolsonaro has repeatedly made claims of electoral fraud and last year openly discussed not accepting the results of the vote.