Left-wing Patriarch Lula, Brazil's First Three-term President in History (Comprehensive)

Narrow Victory in Brazil Presidential Election... Left-Wing Governments in 6 Major Latin American Countries Complete 'Second Pink Tide'

[Photo by AFP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Luis In?cio Lula da Silva, the 'godfather of the South American left' and former president of Brazil (77), secured a historic third term by winning the runoff in Brazil's presidential election on the 30th (local time). Former President Lula will be inaugurated as a three-term president on January 1st next year, exactly 12 years after stepping down on December 31, 2010, at the end of his second term.

According to Bloomberg News, with 99.95% of the votes counted, former President Lula's vote share stood at 50.9%, leading President Jair Bolsonaro (67) by 1.8 percentage points. As expected, the runoff election was extremely close, with the margin between the two candidates being the narrowest since Brazil introduced direct presidential elections in 1989.

Similar to the first round of voting on the 2nd, President Bolsonaro led in the early stages of vote counting. However, at the 67% counting mark, former President Lula overtook Bolsonaro and gradually widened the gap to secure the final victory. The Brazilian Superior Electoral Court only officially announced Lula's victory when the counting reached 98.91%, reflecting the fierce competition that made it impossible to predict the outcome prematurely until the very end.

The gap in support actually narrowed in this runoff compared to the first round. In the first round, former President Lula received 48.4% of the vote, while President Bolsonaro had 43.2%.

As the razor-thin election results show, the top priority for former President Lula will be how to unify the divided public sentiment. Attention is also focused on whether President Bolsonaro will accept the results. Bolsonaro has repeatedly suggested the possibility of manipulation in electronic voting and counting and has indicated his intention to reject the election results if defeated.

Lula's comeback is seen as completing the second 'Pink Tide' of leftist governments in Latin America. Previously, leftist governments have come to power one after another in Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Chile, and Colombia.

The Pink Tide refers to the political trend of leftist governments taking power in South America, and Lula was a key figure in the first Pink Tide. During his presidency from 2003 to 2010, Lula led Brazil's economic growth and enjoyed high popularity among the people. However, with the global economy currently facing recession risks due to the U.S. interest rate hikes and the Ukraine war, there are forecasts that leftist governments in Latin America may find it difficult to succeed as they did during the first Pink Tide.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.