BRAZILIAN President Jair Bolsonaro lost his knife-edge re-election fight as his bitter rival stormed back into power tonight.
Lula da Silva – who previously Brazil’s President from 2003 to 2010 – edged out the incumbent by less than 2 per cent to complete a historic comeback a year after he was released from prison.
Tonight’s run-off vote between the two political heavyweights came after neither received 50% of the vote in an election earlier this month.
Nearly 120 million people took to the polls to cast a ballot in one of the most polarised elections in the nation’s recent history.
Lula’s winning margin was the closest since 1989, as he edged the contest by less than 2% of the vote, official figures show.