Lula Elected Brazil's President, Electoral Authority Says

Leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is on track to clinch victory in the second round of Brazil's bitterly-fought presidential election, the Supreme Electoral Court says. The electoral authority has just noted that the outcome of the race is "mathematically defined," with just a handful of votes left to count.

• Lula overtook the incumbent and remains in pole position with 50.84% of the vote, while early vote count puts Jair Bolsonaro on 49.16%. With over 99% of votes already counted, Lula can now be declared the winner.
• While most opinion surveys suggested that Lula was the frontrunner, the first round saw Bolsonaro significantly outperform projections. In a continuation of that trend, the runoff turned out to be an extremely tight race.
• Brazil correspondent Andrew Downie tweets that "this is the closest election win in modern history in Brazil and will limit Lula's wiggle room considerably. The biq question now is, how will the far-right incumbent and his cadres react?"
• The focus turns to the power transition process. Bolsonaro's remarks raised concerns, as he criticised the voting system vowed not to concede defeat if he loses as a result of fraud. Bolsonaro's reaction to the annoucement of the electoral authority will be closely watched.