Leftist Lula wins historic fourth term as Brazil's president - but his opponent Bolsonaro refuses to accept result

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva clinched a fourth term in a tight runoff against the son of jailed former president Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday.

The Leftist leader won 51.7 percent of the vote, compared to 48.2 percent for Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, official results showed.

But Bolsonaro refused to accept defeat and said he would ask for the result to be annulled due to a Sunday ruling from a Supreme Court justice that extended voting for two hours. 

Eighty-year-old Lula pulled off a dramatic turnaround after a shock second-place finish in the first round. 

Flavio Bolsonaro had finished first in the election's first round and hoped to revive his father's far-Right movement and pardon him. 

The shock result defied polls, precedent and global anti-incumbent sentiment to put the brakes on a wave of Right-wing election victories across Latin America.

At times, Lula's reelection looked like a long shot, as voters soured on him and his Workers' Party after years of corruption scandals and rising prices, while sweeping societal changes left the former metalworker and union leader looking out of touch with an increasingly app-based economy and its growing ranks of informal workers.

But Lula's victory marks another comeback in a career full of them. The 80-year-old was jailed from 2018 to 2019 on corruption charges that were later overturned, paving the way for him to beat Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 election.

'He is a statesman, a giant,' said Leftist federal lawmaker Erika Hilton, who was with Lula in Sao Paulo during the vote count.

Final polls showed the two candidates neck-and-neck. Polling stations were originally due to close at 5pm local time (8pm GMT) on Sunday but the country's Supreme Court extended voting for two hours following complaints that public transport issues had obstructed people from voting, following a request from President Lula.   

Bolsonaro said a ruling by Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin extending voting for two hours was 'unacceptable.' 

Speaking after his victory, Lula said Brazil 'will not accept being anyone's back yard,' in reference to the United States. 

He added that the level of warmth he experienced on the campaign trail was 'something I never imagined'.

The hotly-contested election became in effect a referendum on whether Brazil remains one of Latin America's few Leftist nations or joins a regional swing to the right championed by US President Donald Trump.

'Brazil can't stand another four years like this, everyone's life has gotten worse,' said Mr Bolsonaro outside a polling booth. 

Bolsonaro had said he would hand Brazil to 'the Lord Jesus Christ' and had vowed to crack down on crime and slash government spending if victorious.

But pollsters said better-than-expected turnout had powered Lula to victory. Leonardo Barreto, the co-founder of consultancy Think Policy, said voters had chosen Lula's familiar embrace over Bolsonaro's novelty.

'People today are choosing between change, with some apprehension, and a known path, which guarantees certain rights,' he said.

During the campaign, Lula pointed to a track record of falling poverty and inequality, while unemployment, illiteracy and deforestation hit record lows during his third term.

He warned Bolsonaro would cut welfare spending, backslide on social advances and hand over Brazil's sovereignty to US President Donald Trump, whose State Department led a campaign to get the Bolsonaros back to power.

Lula's win deprives Trump of a major addition to what has been a growing bloc of friendly Right-wing Latin American governments that have embraced Washington's agenda on security and migration.

Celso Amorim, a former Lula foreign minister, told Reuters the Leftist 'would be very important for establishing a point of balance in Latin America. Lula is that balance.'

Lula becomes the first candidate since Brazil's return to democracy in the 1980s to be elected after finishing second in the first round.

Lula, who was president between 2003 and 2011, campaigned on a potent mix of pragmatism and populism that has shaped his career in national politics for half a century, rolling out a slew of reforms aimed at improving the lives of workers and poor Brazilians.

These gained steam with late-campaign pledges that ranged from free nationwide weekend public ​transport, which has to be formally submitted to Congress, to a ‌15% increase in his trademark welfare program that is already being implemented.

Lula also championed a constitutional amendment that became Brazil's biggest labor reform in decades, which passed with wide support in Congress.

But Lula's fourth term could be his most difficult yet, after Brazil elected its most conservative Congress since returning to democracy in the 1980s.

Combined, Bolsonaro's Liberal Party (PL) and allied parties could control over 280 seats in the lower house and up to 50 seats in the Senate, enough for comfortable majorities in both chambers.

'He is likely to be a lame duck from the start,' said Oliver Stuenkel, a professor of international relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo.

The incoming legislature will likely deepen recent trends of presidents ceding power to Congress, Stuenkel said, predicting Lula will face waning influence over Supreme Court nominations, unwieldy party coalitions, and even the threat of impeachment.