Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will be Brazil’s next president

Editor’s note: On November 1st Jair Bolsonaro gave a brief speech in which he thanked the 58m Brazilians who had voted for him, and said he would comply with the constitution—in effect, conceding defeat. He alluded to his followers’ “sense of injustice about how the electoral process was carried out”. His chief of staff said that Mr Bolsonaro’s government would co-operate in the transfer of power.

AFTER THE most nail-biting election in Brazil’s recent history, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will return for a third term as president after beating Jair Bolsonaro, the right-wing populist incumbent, in a run-off on October 30th. With nearly all votes counted, the left-leaning Lula, as he is known, won 50.9% to Mr Bolsonaro’s 49.1%, the tightest margin since Brazil’s return to democratic elections in 1989. It is the first time that an incumbent has failed to win re-election.