Brazil’s polls closed and elections concluded on Sunday as left-wing Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva became the country’s next president, beating incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, who NPR referred to as the “Trump of Latin America.”

Details: The polls were close with Da Silva, commonly referred to as Lula, taking 50.9% of the vote, compared to Bolsonaro’s 49.1%, according to Brazilian election results.

  • As of Tuesday morning, more than a full day after election results were released, Bolsonaro has remained silent and has not yet publicly reacted to his loss.
  • Throughout his campaign, Bolsonoro has been adamant that the only way he would lose the election is if the results were rigged. He has claimed that the left was planning to rig Brazil’s electronic voting system to sway the vote, according to The New York Times.
  • CNN reports that his team has stated that it simply will not accept a loss, which keeps tensions high in the country as his allies await his response.
  • Time states that some analysts have predicted a Brazilian version of the U.S. Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection in response to these results.

Worth noting: A lot was at stake for Brazil in this year’s elections, according to NPR, stating that the country’s government had become extremely polarized over the last four years.

  • Cristopher Lynch, a Brazilian political analyst, said to NPR that it was “urgent ... to remove Bolsonarao from power to avoid dictatorship.”
  • The Associated Press states that this was an especially tense election, due to the fact that it was a runoff election following the country’s first round of voting at the beginning of this month.
  • None of the 11 presidential candidates garnered more than 50% of the vote on Oct. 2, so per Brazilian law, a runoff election needed to occur.
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Worldwide impact: Under Bolsonaro’s administration, large portions of the Amazon rainforest have been cleared for logging, agriculture and highways.

  • Bolsonaro states that it is “a fallacy to say that the Amazon is a heritage of humankind,” per NPR. He shared the sentiment that he wants the Amazon to be a place of opportunity for Brazilians, and not just an exotic travel destination for the wealthy.
  • Da Silva, however, states that he plans to put a stop to the deforestation, per NPR.
  • NBC reported that the Amazon rainforest is not only significantly important for Brazil’s economy, but for the rest of the world.
  • A study in Nature journal states that the rainforest contributes $8.2 billion annually to Brazil’s economy with the production of lumber and rubber.
  • NBC continues to state that the collapse of the Amazon, one of the world's most biodiverse regions, could have severe consequences for the local economy and environment, and even affect the world’s overall climate.
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