BRASILIA – Voters on Sunday ousted President Jair Bolsonaro once and replaced him with former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, election officials said. It is a rejection of Bolsonaro’s far-right movement and four years of divisive rule.

The victory capped da Silva’s astonishing political renaissance –From the presidency to prison and back– something previously unthinkable.

It ends Bolsonaro’s tumultuous tenure as the region’s most powerful leader. Over the years, he has attracted worldwide attention for his policies Accelerated destruction of the Amazon rainforest Y Increased infection, which killed nearly 700,000 people in Brazil; At the same time he became an international figure of the extreme right, thanks to his attacks on the left, the media and Brazil’s democratic institutions.

On recent dates, His efforts to undermine Brazil’s electoral system They caused particular concern at home and abroad, drawing the world’s attention to Sunday’s vote in one of the world’s largest democracies.

Without providing evidence, the President Criticized electronic voting machines of the country and called them fraudsters and hinted that he would not accept defeat like former US President Donald Trump. Many of his followers said they would take to the streets if he asked.

It was not immediately clear how he and his supporters would react to Sunday’s loss.

Sunday’s results show tens of thousands of Brazilians are fed up with his polarizing style and frequent administrative chaos and gave da Silva a mandate to restore Bolsonaro’s legacy. This is the first time in the country’s 34 years of modern democracy that an incumbent president has failed to win re-election.

Da Silva won 50.83 percent of valid votes, compared with 98.81 percent in Sunday night’s tally, compared to Bolsonaro’s 49.17 percent.

Da Silva, a 77-year-old former metal worker and union leader with only a fifth-grade education, led Brazil to its heyday in the first decade of the century. 580 years of imprisonment.

Last year, the Federal Supreme Court overturned the convictions, ruling that the judge in their cases was biased. Voters supported a man known simply as “Lula”.

Da Silva’s election brings to an end a presidential campaign seen as one of the most important votes in Latin America in decades, a rivalry between perhaps the two biggest political figures living in the country and featuring starkly different views on the country’s destiny.

His victory tilts Brazil to the left, extending a string of left-wing victories across Latin America fueled by a wave of rejection of established governments. Now, six of the seven largest countries in the region have elected leftist leaders since 2018.

Da Silva, a fiery leftist who has made a name for himself as a champion of the poor for decades, faces significant challenges. Brazil faces environmental threats, rising hunger, a faltering economy and a deeply divided population.

Despite his victory, a large portion of Brazil’s 217 million people still believe da Silva is corrupt because of a vast bribery scheme uncovered years after he left power. Although his corruption charges were dropped, da Silva was not found innocent.

Yet da Silva won by a narrow margin during the same period, a sign of the deep divide he faces as president. “It’s not the solution to all the problems. But it’s our only hope,” said 30-year-old librarian Stephen Silva de Jesus after voting for da Silva in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.

Da Silva’s main pitch to voters was that his eight years in office were the best in Brazil, and that he was going to “restore harmony” to the country after four years of instability under Bolsonaro.

Andre Spicariol Contributed to reporting from Brasilia, Anna Yonova Y Flavia Milherns Contributed to reporting by Lois Martins from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.