Global praise for Brazil’s Lula Da Silva, who wins election after dodging nine-year prison sentence for corruption

Global leaders have sung praise for Brazil’s Lula Da Silva, who has reclaimed the presidency after dodging a nine-year prison sentence.

Brazilian president-elect for the leftist Workers Party (PT) Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (L) and Sao Paulo Governor candidate Fernando Haddad greet supporters at the Paulista avenue after winning the presidential run-off election, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on October 30, 2022. – Brazil's veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was elected president Sunday by a hair's breadth, beating his far-right rival in a down-to-the-wire poll that split the country in two, election officials said. (Photo by CAIO GUATELLI / AFP)

Global leaders have sung praise for Brazil’s Lula Da Silva, who has reclaimed the presidency after previously being found guilty on corruption and money-laundering charges.

At the age of 77, Da Silva won the election more than a decade after leaving office as the most popular president in his country’s history.

Leaders from the United States, France and other western and regional nations quickly offered congratulations to Brazil’s president-elect.

US President Joe Biden congratulated the leader for his win, taking a shot at his opponent Jair Bolsonaro who alleged the voting process was fraudulent.

“I send my congratulations to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on his election to be the next president of Brazil following free, fair, and credible elections,” Biden said in a statement.

There are claims Da Silva’s re-election is proof of a left-wing political conquest of Latin America following similar election results in Mexico and Chile.

However, Da Silva’s political career has been dotted with undeniable controversy.

💚💛💙❤️ https://t.co/3chrFQXL2e

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 31, 2022

He became Brazil’s first leftist president in 2003, marking the nation’s first leader to come from a working-class background. Under his social programs some 30 million Brazilians escaped poverty, paving the way for his re-election in 2006.

In 2011, he handed power to designated successor Dilma Rousseff, who became Brazil’s first woman president.

With corruption claims mounting, Brazil’s Supreme Court blocked Rousseff’s bid to appoint Lula as her chief of staff, which would have given him ministerial immunity.

At age 77, Da Silva won the election over a decade after leaving office as the most popular president in his country’s history. However, his career has been dotted with undeniable controversy.

Rousseff was later impeached in August 2016.

In July 2017, Lula was found guilty of receiving a bribe from a Brazilian construction company in return for contracts with state oil company Petrobras.

He was sentenced to nine-and-a-half years behind bars.

Judge Sergio Moro said Lula willingly took part in the corruption scheme, where billions of dollars were paid to middlemen, executives and politicians for contracts.

“Symbolically [the sentence] has a very heavy weight, not just for him but for the country, that voted not just twice for him but twice for the candidate he indicated,” Carlos Melo, a professor of political science in Sao Paulo, said in 2017.

In January 2018, Da Silva lost an appeal, resulting in an increased sentence of 12 years and one month.

He was then denied an attempt to delay the start of his sentence and ordered to turn himself in within 24 hours.

In August 2018, a majority of Brazil’s electoral court barred Lula from running in that October’s elections, which were won by Jair Bolsonaro, the man he would later come back to defeat.

In 2019, Lula was further convicted for accepting renovation work by two construction companies on a farmhouse in exchange for Petrobras contracts.

Brazil’s Supreme Court said Lula willingly took part a corruption scheme, where billions of dollars were paid to middlemen, executives and politicians for juicy contracts.

Supporters of president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva listen to his speech at the Paulista avenue after his victory on the presidential run-off election in Sao Paulo.

However, in November that year, the Supreme Court ruled that convicted criminals can only go to jail once all appeals have been exhausted, paving the way for Lula’s release pending further legal challenges.

His convictions were overturned on procedural grounds in early 2021, restoring Lula’s eligibility to run for office.

The Supreme Court also invalidated evidence collected in all cases against the former leader, as a UN panel declared Lula’s rights to an impartial trial had been violated.

Earlier this year Lula courted raised eyebrows around the world after saying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was “as responsible” as Russia’s Vladimir Putin for the 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 had conspired against his far-right movement.

“This country needs peace and unity,” Lula said to loud cheers in a victory speech in Sao Paulo.

“The challenge is immense,” he said of the job ahead of him, citing a hunger crisis, the economy, bitter political division, and deforestation in the Amazon.

He later addressed a tightly packed crowd of hundreds of thousands of supporters who flooded the city centre clad in Workers’ Party red, vowing: “democracy is back.”

— with AFP