Lula da Silva was sworn in as Brazil’s next President last Sunday, defeating current President Jair Bolsonaro after a tense election in which the two men were neck and neck. Da Silva received 50.9 per cent of the votes cast in the runoff election, while Bolsonaro received 49.1 per cent of the votes cast.
The Former President is supposed to pass the presidential sash to the newly elected president, a tradition that has been followed throughout all elections after the end of the country’s military dictatorship in 1985. However, Mr. Bolsonaro spent the day after the election in Florida, USA.
Mr. Bolsonaro has been criticising the credibility of Brazil’s election system for years, with no substantial evidence to back up his critique. President Lula, according to the far-right and Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters, is a criminal president.
Here are some facts about the new President-
President Lila da Silva was the seventh of eight children born in a family of farmers and grew up in deep poverty. By the young age of 14, he had been taking up several odd jobs and even lost a finger in a workplace accident.
He represented the working class by becoming the head of his trade union and led the 1970s strikes against the then-military dictatorship.
In 1980, he co-founded the Workers’ Party.
He led Brazil as the President for the first time in the term 2003-2010 during which he facilitated the uplifting of millions of families from poverty to the middle class.
When he left office, he still had an approval rating of more than 80%.
He was jailed for 580 days on account of being involved in corruption and money laundering in 2018. This kept him out of the previous presidential race giving way to Mr. Bolsonaro to become the President. However, the convictions were later annulled by the country’s apex court which ruled that the presiding judge had been biased in his verdict by being in collusion with the prosecutors.
By – Veena
Bangalore correspondent
WOM
