The Prime Minister’s Office tweeted on Monday: “Congratulations to @LulaOficial for winning the presidential elections in Brazil. I look forward to working closely with him to further deepen and expand our bilateral relations as well as our cooperation on global issues.”

After narrowly defeating President Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday, Lula da Silva was elected as the new president and is expected to be sworn in on January 1st.

Just over two million votes separated the two contenders at the end of the count of all votes, making it (Brazil’s) closest elections in over three decades.

After a hotly contested second round of the elections on Sunday, Lula obtained 50.9 percent of the valid votes, while Bolsonaro got “only” 49.1 percent.

More than 156 million people were eligible to vote in the elections and Lula’s victory marks the return of the left wing to power in Brazil, the source said.

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