Dhaka, Oct. 31 -- Luis Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday narrowly defeated President Jair Bolsonaro in a runoff election that marked a stunning comeback for the leftist former president and the end of Brazil's most right-wing government in decades, Reuters reports.

The Supreme Electoral Court declared Lula the next president, with 50.9 per cent of votes compared with 49.1 per cent for Bolsonaro. The 77-year-old Lula's inauguration is scheduled for Jan 1.

The vote was a rebuke for the fiery far-right populism of Bolsonaro, who emerged from the back benches of Congress to forge a novel conservative coalition but lost support as Brazil ran up one of the worst death tolls of the coronavirus pandemic.

Lula, in a speech on Sunday night, said he...