In the Brazilian capital on Monday, the silence was deafening. Almost a full day after President Jair Bolsonaro lost his bid for re-election, the usually brash right-wing leader had not conceded defeat or disputed the results of the country’s closest political contest in more than three decades. Mr Bolsonaro had not said a word to reporters camped outside the official residence or supporters who regularly gather nearby. Nor did he post on his otherwise prolific social media platforms. The only sign of protest came from truckers who support Bolsonaro, who began blocking roads across the country on Sunday. As of Monday night, the Federal Highway Patrol had reported 236 incidents in 18 states, up from 136 three hours earlier. Mr. Bolsonaro’s rival, former president and leftist ex-union leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, won Sunday night’s runoff with 50.9 percent of the vote, to Mr. Bolsonaro’s 49.1 percent. It was the closest election since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1985. Oliver Stuenkel: How Brazil’s democracy walked off the cliff Ricardo Barros, Mr. Bolsonaro’s lower house whip, told The Associated Press by phone that he was with the president on Monday and that Mr. Bolsonaro was “still deciding” whether to talk about the election results. Like former US President Donald Trump, whom Mr Bolsonaro admires, Brazil’s outgoing leader has repeatedly questioned the reliability of the country’s electronic voting system. At one point he said he had evidence of fraud, although he did not provide evidence. And just last month, he remarked that if he didn’t win in the first round of the election, something was “off” — even though most polls showed him trailing. As time passes and a growing number of international leaders publicly acknowledge Mr. da Silva’s victory, the president’s room for dissent is shrinking, experts told The Associated Press. Some of Mr. Bolsonaro’s closest allies reported as much. “The will of the majority shown on the ballots will never be questioned,” lower house speaker Arthur Lira told reporters on Sunday. Other Bolsonaro supporters who have publicly acknowledged Mr. da Silva’s victory include Sao Paulo governor-elect Tarcisio de Freitas and senator-elect Damares Alves, who both served as ministers under Mr. Bolsonaro, and the whip of the Parliament Mr. Baros. Evangelical pastor Silas Malafaia, who has been a staunch supporter of Bolsonaro, called on God to give his “blessing” to Mr da Silva. “He must have a lot of plans on how to challenge the poll results. the question is whether he has the political support to go ahead with these plans,” said Paulo Calmon, professor of political science at the University of Brasilia. “He will not have the support of the governor of São Paulo, the Lower House, the Senate, and he will have to face opposition from all of them.” Prof Calmon added that Mr Bolsonaro had recently said during an interview last month that he would accept the result even if he lost, but that congratulating Mr da Silva would damage his popularity among the more radical base of. Abroad, US President Joe Biden was among the first world leaders to greet Mr da Silva, highlighting the country’s “free, fair and credible elections”. By contrast, Mr Bolsonaro took more than a month to congratulate Mr Biden on his 2020 victory against Mr Trump. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador invited Mr. da Silva to visit Mexico in late November for the Pacific Alliance summit. The Labor leader replied that he had to wait for Mr Bolsonaro to concede defeat before accepting the invitation, according to a video of the exchange. Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Bolsonaro has his own potential legal concerns. He is one of the targets of a Supreme Court probe into the spread of fake news, and a Senate inquiry has recommended he be charged with crimes for mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic. On Brazil’s Independence Day last year, Mr Bolsonaro told a cheering crowd that only God could remove him from office, then continued: “For all of us, there are only three alternatives, especially for me: arrested, dead or victorious. Tell the fools they’ll never get me!” The high-profile election was a stunning turnaround for Mr. da Silva, 77, whose prison term for corruption sidelined him from the 2018 election that brought Mr. Bolsonaro, a champion of conservative social values, to power. “Today, the only winner is the Brazilian people,” Mr da Silva said in a speech at a hotel in central Sao Paulo. “This is not a victory for me or for the Labor Party, nor for the parties that supported me in the campaign. It is the victory of a democratic movement formed over political parties, personal interests and ideologies.” Mr da Silva has promised to govern beyond his party. He wants to bring in centrists and even some right-leaning voters who first voted for him and restore the country’s more prosperous past. But he faces headwinds in a politically polarized society and is likely to face strong opposition from conservative lawmakers. Thomas Trauman, an independent political analyst, compared the situation to Mr. Biden’s victory: Mr. da Silva, like the US president, inherits an extremely divided country. “People are not only polarized on political issues, but also have different values, identities and opinions,” Mr Traumann said. “Furthermore, they don’t care what the other side’s values, identities and views are.” The election in Latin America’s largest economy extended a wave of recent leftist victories in South American countries including Argentina, Chile and Colombia. Mr. da Silva’s inauguration is scheduled to take place on January 1. He most recently served as president from 2003-2010. Mr. da Silva’s inauguration is scheduled to take place on January 1. He last served as president from 2003 to 2010. He helped tens of millions join the middle class. “We did not face an opponent, a candidate. We faced the machine of the Brazilian state that was put in its service so that we could not win the elections,” Mr da Silva told the crowd during his acceptance speech in Sao Paulo. But Mr da Silva is also being remembered for his government’s involvement in massive corruption uncovered by wide-ranging investigations. His arrest in 2018 kept him out of that year’s race against Mr. Bolsonaro, a fringe lawmaker at the time who was a staunch admirer of Mr. Trump. Mr da Silva was jailed for 580 days for corruption and money laundering. His convictions were later overturned by Brazil’s highest court, which ruled that the presiding judge was biased and cooperated with prosecutors. This enabled Mr da Silva to run for the country’s highest office for a sixth time. On social media, one of Mr. Bolsonaro’s sons, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, who served as his father’s campaign coordinator, thanked his supporters and told them to keep their heads up and “not to give up on Brazil”.
