Brazil election: Lula beats Bolsonaro in historic presidential runoff

euronews.com:

Brazilian voters elected Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as the country's new president on Sunday, giving the leftist former leader another shot at power in a rejection of incumbent Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right politics.

The runoff has been seen as the most divisive election in Brazil's history against a backdrop of concerns of political violence, corruption, rising poverty and the fate of the Amazon rain forest, amongst several other issues.

Da Silva, or Lula as he is known mononymously, received 50.9% of the vote and Bolsonaro 49.1%, according to the country’s election authority. 

Yet hours after the results were in -- and congratulations poured in from world leaders -- Bolsonaro had yet to publicly concede or react in any way.

"So far, Bolsonaro has not called me to recognise my victory, and I don't know if he will call or if he will recognize my victory," Lula told supporters celebrating his victory in Sao Paulo after the results were announced.

A source in the Bolsonaro campaign told Reuters the president would not make public remarks until Monday. The Bolsonaro campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Bolsonaro’s campaign had made repeated — unproven — claims of possible electoral manipulation before the vote, raising fears that, if he lost, he would not accept defeat and try to challenge the results.

For Lula, the high-stakes election was a stunning comeback. 

His imprisonment for corruption sidelined him from the 2018 election won by Bolsonaro, who has used the presidency to promote conservative social values while also delivering incendiary speeches and testing democratic institutions.

“Today the only winner is the Brazilian people,” Lula said in a speech Sunday evening at a hotel in downtown Sao Paulo. 

“It’s the