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Brazil - October 2022

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva narrowly wins presidential race in run-off

Lula won the second-round elections held on 30 October, narrowly defeating incumbent Jair Bolsonaro after an extremely polarizing race, in which voter turnout was 79.4 per cent of those registered. This follows the first round, in which neither Lula nor the incumbent attained the needed 50.0 per cent of votes. 

Thousands of Bolsonaro’s supporters protested the results and blocked traffic, some even calling on the military to intervene. Almost two days after the election took place, Bolsonaro’s administration acknowledged that the initiation of the transition process had been authorised. 

Increased tension resulted in acts of politically based violence prior to the run-off, including the fatal stabbing of a Lula supporter in September. Moreover, increased power to oversee online content and measures to combat disinformation by the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE) have been criticized as overreach. 

In elections to congress, two Indigenous women were elected and, in a historic first, two trans women also won their parliamentary races. In the chamber of deputies, women’s representation increased from 15.0 to 17.7 per cent, but in the senate it decreased to only 12.3 per cent. Lula will govern with a congress in which members of Bolsonaro’s party make up the largest parliamentary group.

Sources: Câmara dos Deputados, La Nacion, Reuters, The New York Times (1), The New York Times (2), The Guardian

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