The victory marks an impressive about-face for the charismatic but ailing left-wing heavyweight, who left office in 2010 as the most popular president in Brazilian history, only to fall out of favor when he was jailed for 18 months on controversial corruption charges, and is now turning back he returned at the age of 77 for an unprecedented third term.
Brazil's President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called for "peace and unity" after narrowly winning a divisive runoff on Sunday and capping a remarkable political comeback by defeating incumbent far-right Jair Bolsonaro, who is yet to accept his defeat Has .
The victory marks an impressive about-face for the charismatic but ailing left-wing heavyweight, who left office in 2010 as the most popular president in Brazilian history, only to fall out of favor when he was jailed for 18 months on controversial corruption charges, and is now turning back he returned at the age of 77 for an unprecedented third term.
Now all eyes will be on how Bolsonaro and his supporters react to the outcome after months of claiming without evidence that Brazil's e-voting system is riddled with fraud and that the courts, media and other institutions were conspiring against his far-right movement.
This country needs peace and unity," Lula said amid jubilation at a victory speech in Sao Paulo. "The challenge in is immense," he said of the work ahead, citing a hunger crisis, the economy, a bitter political divide and deforestation in the Amazon.
He later addressed a packed crowd of hundreds of thousands of supporters dressed in Labor Party red who flooded the city center and vowed, "Democracy is back.
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