Lula won the election against Flavio Bolsonarorn from behind

Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, faces his fourth term in the second round of the presidential election on Sunday, winning Flavio Bolsonaro.

The historic leader of the Workers' Party (PT) has won 51.79% of the vote, while the far-right candidate has won 48.21%, a difference of more than four million votes: 64.2 million votes against 59.8 million Bolsonaro.

Lula has thus turned the results of the first round, when Bolsonaro won by two points.

That distance seemed insurmountable, and that was what the polls and the political climate showed after the right won the legislative election.

The polls have given a technical draw, never put Lula ahead of the second round, nor have they predicted a difference of nearly four points, even greater than in the election four years ago.

Victory over "lies and negationism"

The progressive leader envisioned the second round as a battle between a democratic model and the threat of authoritarianism by the Bolsonaro family, which is serving 27 years in prison for a coup to remain in power after losing the election in 2022.

In his victory speech, with his voice torn apart, Lula thanked young people for taking to the streets to "defend democracy," as well as the elderly for going to vote, which has reduced the high abstention of the first round.

The progressive leader also raised the vote as a call to choose between defending the homeland or surrendering to U.S. President Donald Trump. 

Lula has therefore said that the results show that Brazil "does not accept being anyone's backyard," but wants to be "central" in global debates rather than "peripheral."

Bolsonaro rejects the results.

After learning the result, Bolsonaro has refused to acknowledge Lula's victory and has advanced that he will call for "annulment" of the election.

The reason, a controversial court decision that led to a two-hour extension of voting hours across the country in response to a request from Lula.

Lula's PT reported that in several cities controlled by the right, not enough free bus services were put in place to mobilize voters, as the justice system dictated, which mainly affected the poorest.

The decision to extend voting hours was taken by Lula's former lawyer, Supreme Court Judge Cristiano Zanin, and was announced one minute after the polling stations closed.

Hence many of the tables did not receive the order in time, and closed it at the usual time, causing confusion.

The President of the High Electoral Court, Kassio Nunes Marqués, stated that this delay caused "technical, operational and security difficulties" in the elections.

Bolsonaro described what happened as "unacceptable" and "a complete violation of the Brazilians' right to equality."

Euphoria on the streets

Lula's victory has caused an explosion of euphoria in several cities across the country.

The largest of them is in São Paulo, where thousands of people have gathered on central Paulista Avenue and where the elected president has come to thank the supporters for their support, shouting "dictatorship never again!"

The size of the São Paulo party has been much larger than when Lula beat Jair Bolsonaro four years ago.

From today, Lula will have trouble negotiating with a Congress that is more to the right than ever. It's going to be a big governance challenge.