Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva secured a fourth election victory on Oct. 25, extending a political career that grew out of factory work and union leadership during the military dictatorship.
The Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE), Brazil’s electoral court, gave Lula 64,256,232 votes, or 51.79% of valid ballots. Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro received 59,826,041 votes, or 48.21%.
The runoff victory reversed an interim first-round lead for Bolsonaro. With 99.99% of voting machines counted on Oct. 5, the TSE reported 47.03% for Bolsonaro and 45.16% for Lula.
Lula’s first presidential win came in 2002, after defeats in 1989, 1994 and 1998. He won again in 2006 and 2022, returning to office in 2023 after serving his first two terms from 2003 to 2010.
A biography published by Brazil’s Secretaria-Geral traces his path from Garanhuns, Pernambuco, to São Paulo state, where he moved with his family as a child. He shined shoes before training as a machinist. Lula later lost the little finger of his left hand in a press accident at Metalúrgica Independência, an injury he described in a 2014 interview.
In 1975, Lula became president of the Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos de São Bernardo do Campo e Diadema. The Secretaria-Geral biography says he was detained for 31 days during a 1980 strike and helped found the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) that year.
His political comeback followed a series of court decisions. Lula was released from prison in 2019 after a Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF) ruling on when a sentence may be enforced while appeals remain pending. In 2021, the court voided his corruption convictions because the court in Curitiba had no jurisdiction over the cases. In a separate decision, the STF upheld a finding that former judge Sergio Moro was biased in the triplex case. The rulings addressed jurisdiction and judicial impartiality, not whether the allegations were true.
Lula has also spoken about losses in his family. In a 2014 interview, he said his first wife and their child died during childbirth. His later wife, Marisa Letícia Lula da Silva, died in 2017, according to a Brazilian government condolence notice.
Article 82 of Brazil’s Constitution places the start of Lula’s new presidential term on Jan. 5, 2027.
