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Who is Lula da Silva?
Brazil's Lula da Silva on October 30, 2022, returned to become the new president of the country after narrowly defeating incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. According to Brazil's Election Authority, Lula earned 50.8 per cent votes in the tight race against Bolsonaro, who won 49.2 per cent votes.
Lula last served as the Brazilian president from 2003-2010.
Early life and education
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was born on October 27, 1945, to a family of illiterate farmers in Pernambuco and grew up in deep poverty. At the age of seven, he alongside his family migrated to the industrial heartland of Sao Paulo.
Lula did not know how to read until the age of 10, and he quit school after second grade to work and help his family.
At the age of 12, Lula started to work as a shoeshine boy, and street vendor and became a metalworker at 14. The left-wing politician lost a finger at the age of 19 in the 1960s in a workplace accident.
Political career
Lula started his career as a metalworker and trade unionist, the politician became the head of his trade union and led major workers' strikes between 1978 and 1980, during the military dictatorship in Brazil.
1980, during Brazil's political opening, he co-founded the Workers' Party. He was also one of the main leaders of the 'Diretas Ja' movement in 1984, a civil unrest movement, which demanded direct presidential elections in Brazil.
In 1986, he was elected the federal deputy of Sao Paulo with the most votes nationwide.
Lula ran for president for the first time in 1989 and lost to Fernando Collor de Mello. He ran for the post two more times, in 1994 and 1998, and lost both times to Fernando Henrique Cardoso in the first round.
The socialist leader won the 2002 Brazil presidential election. He was re-elected as the nation's president in 2006 and served the post till 2010.
Brazil's child malnutrition decreased by 46 per cent during Lula's first term. During his presidential tenure, Lula is credited for building an extensive social welfare programme that lifted tens of millions into the middle class.
In 2018, Lula was imprisoned over a corruption scandal that sidelined him from that year's election, which eventually paved the way for then-candidate Bolsonaro's win. He was in jail for 580 days for corruption and money laundering.
Lula's victory marks the first time since Brazil's 1985 return to democracy that the sitting president has failed to win reelection. The socialist leader will be inaugurated as the president on January 1, 2023.