Socialist incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil’s presidential election yesterday, official results say. However, his right-wing opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro, refuses to concede and demands annulment of the result, which he calls “inexplicable.”

• Latin America has shifted to the right in elections over the last three years. Polls indicated Brazil would as well after Bolsonaro won the first round of elections on October 4.

Left-wing President Lula defied the polls, officially winning the runoff with 52 percent of the vote and a margin of 4.4 million votes.

• Bolsanaro is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who lost against Lula in 2022 and also rejected the election results.

There is reason to question the numbers:

• After Lula said buses had been taken out of service in cities that favored him, the Supreme Court extended voting by two hours.
• “Several electoral lawyers say today’s vote could be annulled due to confusion over the late decision to extend voting hours,” the New York Times reported yesterday. “All four lawyers interviewed call the situation unprecedented.”

As Gerald Flurry has emphasized, Bible prophecy indicates Latin America will align with Europe due to a strong historic Catholic faith in the former and a reawakening of that faith in the latter. In “America Is Being Besieged Economically,” he highlighted Jair Bolsonaro’s Catholic faith as a sign for ideological alignment.

• However, it was under Lula’s presidency that Brazil finally signed a major trade agreement with the European Union.

Though Brazil’s leadership is uncertain, prophecy clearly indicates it will form a dangerous alliance with a new European superpower, as explained in “Germany Unites the World Against America.” This alliance will be held together by Catholicism. Thus, the Trumpet continues to watch Catholic Latin American leaders closely.