Lula defeats Flavio Bolsonaro to win fourth term as Brazil's president

Brazil's incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won a fourth term by defeating Senator Flavio Bolsonaro in the runoff election. Lula received 51.75% of the vote versus Bolsonaro's 48.25%, a margin of about 4.3 million votes. Lula had lost the first round in early October by roughly 2.2 million votes, marking the first time a second-place candidate won the runoff since Brazil's return to democracy in the 1980s. Lula's key advantage was voter turnout, which improved from a record 21% abstention in the first round to 19.2% in the second. Flavio Bolsonaro is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, whom Lula defeated in 2022; the elder Bolsonaro is under house arrest for attempting a coup. The loss is a setback for U.S. President Donald Trump, who backed the family. Lula, turning 81 on Tuesday, has maintained a neutral stance on the Ukraine war, advocating negotiations while rejecting Russian occupation.