Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has won the Brazilian election, beating Jair Bolsonaro by a razor-thin margin.
It has been Brazil's astir polarised predetermination successful caller memory, pitting far-right incumbent President Bolsonaro against leftist erstwhile person Lula da Silva.
On his victory, Mr da Silva tweeted a elemental representation of his manus implicit the Brazilian emblem and the word: "Democracy."
It is simply a stunning instrumentality to powerfulness for Mr da Silva, 77, whose 2018 imprisonment implicit a corruption ungraded sidelined him from that year's election, paving the mode for then-candidate Mr Bolsonaro's triumph and 4 years of far-right politics.
Mr da Silva's convictions were annulled, but helium faced an uphill battle, erstwhile helium decided to re-run for president, with galore millions of Brazilians continuing to judge helium was corrupt.
After his triumph was announced, helium said: "They tried to hide maine alive, and I'm here!"
And successful his archetypal code to the federation arsenic president-elect, helium vowed his astir urgent committedness would beryllium to "end hunger" successful Brazil.
His triumph marks the archetypal clip since Brazil's 1985 instrumentality to ideology that the sitting president has failed to triumph reelection.
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'Time of anticipation and future'
Brazil's Supreme Electoral Court's number showed it was an highly adjacent contention - Mr da Silva polled 50.9% of votes compared with 49.1% for Mr Bolsonaro, with each of the voting machines counted.
The election, successful the world's fourth-largest democracy, served arsenic a referendum connected 2 starkly antithetic - and vehemently opposed - visions for Brazil's future.
Mr Bolsonaro vowed to consolidate a crisp rightward crook successful Brazilian authorities aft a presidency that witnessed 1 of the world's deadliest outbreaks of COVID-19 and wide deforestation successful the Amazon basin.
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Mr da Silva promised much societal and biology responsibility, evoking the rising prosperity of his 2003-2010 presidency, earlier corruption scandals tarnished his Workers' Party.
More than 120 cardinal Brazilians were expected to formed ballots, with the ballot conducted electronically.
There are besides fears Mr Bolsonaro could situation the predetermination results should helium suffer - overmuch similar erstwhile US President Donald Trump.
For months, helium claimed the nation's physics voting machines are prone to fraud, though helium ne'er presented evidence.
As Mr da Silva prepared to springiness a code astatine a edifice successful São Paulo connected Sunday evening, Mr Bolsonaro had yet to concede the election.
It was the country's closest canvass successful much than 3 decades. Just implicit 2 cardinal votes separated the 2 candidates, with 99.5% of the ballot counted. The erstwhile closest race, successful 2014, was decided by a borderline of 3.46 cardinal votes.
The caller president, known universally arsenic Lula, volition beryllium sworn successful connected 1 January 2023.