Former president’s chief of staff indicates his administration is ready to begin transition process

• Brazil election: how Lula won the runoff against Bolsonaro

Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has broken his almost two-day silence over his defeat in Sunday’s presidential election – but refused to congratulate or recognize the victory of his rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

After Bolsonaro had delivered his message, however, his chief of staff indicated that his administration would not contest the election result.

Brazil’s far-right president has yet to concede after receiving 58.2m votes to Lula’s 60.3m

Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has fallen silent after his chastening election defeat to his leftist rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

A stream of world leaders have stepped forward to recognize Lula’s stunning political comeback, including the US president, Joe Biden, the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, and China’s Communist party chief, Xi Jinping.

In today’s newsletter: Celebrations erupted in Brazil last night after Lula’s triumph over far-right incumbent Bolsonaro. What could the next four years look like – and will Bolsonaro concede defeat peacefully?

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After an election period marred by disinformation and threats of violence, Brazil’s leftist former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – known as Lula – narrowly defeated far right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro by two percentage points in an astonishing political comeback. In a parallel universe, Lula’s once unthinkable, political revival – from the top of Brazilian politics, to prison and back to the presidency – would be the story of the hour. Instead all eyes are elsewhere.

Police | Met police chief, Sir Mark Rowley, has said that the gang violence matrix, a controversial Metropolitan police list of alleged gang members that mainly targeted black men, needs to be “radically reformed”. Amnesty International branded the list part of a “racialised war” on gangs. Rowley has already removed more than 1,000 young men from the list.

South Korea | President Yoon Suk-yeo has declared a state of national mourning and ordered an investigation after a fatal crowd crush during Halloween celebrations. More than 150 people were killed after people surged through a narrow alleyway in a busy area of Seoul.

Cop27 | Rishi Sunak’s decision not to attend UN climate talks in Egypt this week has prompted an outpouring of anger from countries around the world. “It seems as if they are washing their hands of leadership,” said Carlos Fuller, Belize’s ambassador to the UN.

NHS | The NHS has not received any of the funding from Thérèse Coffey’s £500m emergency fund. The money was supposed to help get thousands of medically fit patients out of hospital into their own home or a care home to prevent the NHS from becoming overwhelmed in the winter.

National security | UK government ministers risk creating “wild west” conditions in matters of national security through the increased use of personal email and phones to conduct confidential business, intelligence experts and former officials have warned.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the former leftist president, has reclaimed the leadership and vowed to reunify his country

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• Profile: the rise and fall and rise again of Lula

Brazil’s former leftist president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has sealed an astonishing political comeback, beating the far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in one of the most significant and bruising elections in the country’s history.

With 99.97% of votes counted, Silva, a former factory worker who became Brazil’s first working-class president exactly 20 years ago, had secured 50.9% of the vote. Bolsonaro, a firebrand who was elected in 2018, received 49.10%.

The Superior Electoral Court of Brazil has announced that Lula is elected president, after a nailbiting count that went to the wire. Find out how every state voted

• Latest reaction and analysis

Brazil’s president is elected directly by the people; any candidate with more than 50% of the vote wins, and there is no role in the election for parliament and no electoral college.

Tens of millions of progressives turn out in hopes of unseating Jair Bolsonaro from presidency after bitterly fought campaign

The future of one of the world’s largest democracies and the Amazon rainforest was on a knife-edge as Brazil held its most important election in decades and its far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, battled to cling to power amid claims that security forces were engaged in a pro-Bolsonaro voter suppression campaign.

Polls on the eve of the election had showed Bolsonaro trailing his leftist rival, the former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, by a margin of four to eight percentage points, although first-round polls had underestimated support for the incumbent. Lula won the recent first round by about 6mvotes but fell just short of the overall majority that would have guaranteed him an outright win.

Polls – which underestimated incumbent’s vote in first round – give Workers’ party leader 52% to 48% advantage

Brazilians head to the polls on Sunday in their most important election for years, with leftist challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva the slight favourite to put an end to four years of destructive government by the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.

Opinion polls on the eve of the ballot gave Lula, as the Workers’ party candidate is known, a lead of between four and eight percentage points.

The government slush fund, which amounts to about one-fifth of the entire discretionary spending budget, has little or no oversight

When historians write books about why so many Brazilians voted for the far-right they will justifiably focus on ideological, political and social issues. But there is another key reason why President Jair Bolsonaro is still competitive as Sunday’s runoff ballot approaches: he’s handing out billions from a government slush fund.

The fund is known as the “secret budget” because there is little or no oversight over where the money goes once it is handed to lawmakers.

Leftist challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva calls incumbent Jair Bolsonaro a ‘shameless liar’ who ‘fooled around’ with Covid causing huge fatalities

The leftist frontrunner to become Brazil’s next president branded the far-right incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, “a tiny little dictator” and “the king of fake news and stupidity” during a television debate that will help define the political future of one of the world’s biggest democracies.

Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who nearly beat Bolsonaro in the presidential election’s first round in September, admonished his opponent over his handling of Covid and soaring Amazon deforestation during the feisty two-hour encounter.

Far-right president forces second round after closely trailing Lula, disappointing those who had hoped to turn a page on his influence

Tears filled Beatriz Simões’s eyes as she digested Jair Bolsonaro’s startlingly strong performance in Sunday’s Brazilian election.

Hours earlier the 34-year-old publicist had been convinced a hope-filled dawn was coming with the election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as Brazil’s next leader.

One expert says many surveys overrepresented poor voters, and far-right supporters may just not respond

Not for the first time, the pollsters got it wrong. Far from being a sweeping win for the left, the first round of Brazil’s presidential elections was much closer than expected, with the country’s far-right president significantly outperforming predictions.

With almost all votes counted on Monday, Jair Bolsonaro’s veteran leftist rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, had secured 48.3%, while the populist incumbent was just five percentage points behind on 43.3%, a much narrower margin than most pre-election estimates.

Brazilians will go to the polls again after former president won the first vote but failed to secure a majority over the incumbent

Brazil’s acrimonious presidential race will go to a second round after the former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva failed to secure the overall majority he needed to avoid a runoff with the far-right incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro.

With more than 99.5% of votes counted the leftist veteran had secured 48.3% of the vote, not enough to avoid the 30 October show down with his rightwing rival. Bolsonaro, who significantly out-performed pollsters’ predictions and will be buoyed by the result, received 43.3%.

This blog is now closed. You can read our full story on the results at the link below:

• Lula da Silva wins vote but not outright victory

A Lula victory would represent the latest in a series of triumphs for a resurgent Latin American left, following the election of leftist leaders in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia and Chile.

“I’m going to win these elections so I can give the people the right to be happy again. The people need, deserve and have the right … to be happy once more,” Lula told journalists as he wrapped up his campaigning with a parade through the streets of São Paulo on Saturday.

Incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and former president Lula will go to a runoff election at the end of the month after a tighter than expected first round result

Latest analysis and reaction

Brazil’s president is elected directly by the 156 million voters; there is no electoral college and no role for the legislature. A candidate needs more than 50% of the vote to be elected. If this does not happen in the first round, the top two candidates will go into a runoff election at the end of the month.