Former left-wing president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won the presidential election in Brazil on Sunday, beating incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro.
Favorite of the ballot for several months, Lula finally won by a thin margin against his conservative opponent, according to data from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).
He returns to power, after leading Brazil between 2003 and 2010.
The campaign between these two men who oppose everything took place in a brutal climate which saw them insult each other copiously while social networks, the only source of information for the majority of the 170 million Brazilian users, carried torrents of misinformation.
Bolsonaro insulted Lula: “
thief
”, “
ex-prisoner
”, “
alcoholic
” or “
national disgrace
”.
The latter returned the blows: “
pedophile
”, “
cannibal
”, “
genocidal
” or “
little dictator
”.
A controversy tainted a day that passed without major incident.
The president of the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) Alexandre de Moraes announced the lifting of filter barriers by the federal road police (PRF) which "
delayed the arrival of voters
" at the polling stations, the left crying foul.
Leaders of the PT, Lula's Workers' Party, had earlier relayed on social networks many videos of buses transporting voters at a standstill, especially in rural areas of the Northeast, electoral stronghold of the former - left-wing president (2003-2010) who deemed “
inadmissible what is happening
”.