Lula wins Brazil's bitter presidential vote
Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called for "peace and unity" after narrowly winning a divisive runoff election, capping a remarkable political comeback by defeating far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro -- who has yet to accept defeat.
The victory marks a stunning turnaround for charismatic but tarnished leftist icon Lula, who left office in 2010 as the most popular president in Brazilian history, fell into disgrace when he was imprisoned for 18 months on controversial, since-quashed corruption charges, and now returns for an unprecedented third term at age 77.
"This country needs peace and unity. The Brazilian people don't want to fight anymore," Lula said to loud cheers in a victory speech in Sao Paulo, where euphoric supporters clad in Workers' Party red flooded the city centre.
"It is in no one's interest to live in a divided nation in a permanent state of war."
All eyes will now be on how Bolsonaro and his supporters react to the result, after months of alleging -- without evidence -- that Brazil's electronic voting system is plagued by fraud and that the courts, media and other institutions have conspired against his far-right movement.
In the closest race since Brazil returned to democracy after its 1964-1985 dictatorship, electoral officials declared the election for Lula, who had 50.9 percent of the vote to 49.1 percent for Bolsonaro with more than 99.9 percent of polling stations reporting.
