Elections in Brazil: in the first round behind, in the second victory; how Lula secured a fourth appointment with the help of WhatsApp | Today’s news

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recently won the election, securing a fourth term in office against his right-wing challenger, Flávio Bolsonaro. Lula won 51.79% of the vote, becoming the first president since the country’s return to civilian rule in 1985 to win after losing the first round of voting. Lula’s victory and unprecedented comeback is attributed to a social media platform: WhatsApp.

According to reports from the BBC and The New York Times, a WhatsApp channel was created to mobilize his supporters, with his allies pulling off one of the most unlikely comebacks in recent Brazilian politics, turning the tide in his favor.

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The “Lula’s Army” WhatsApp channel mobilized supporters through messages to forward, campaign videos and hashtags to promote. Its rapid growth has helped Lula’s campaign compete in digital spaces where conservatives were previously seen as having an advantage.

Lula’s Army was a WhatsApp channel run by Congressman André Janones that grew to around 10.8 million followers. It provided supporters with pre-written messages to share and specific online tasks, such as amplifying campaign videos and hashtags.

Almost three million more people voted in the second round than in the first round, while the absentee rate fell. The campaign sought to bring back people who skipped the first vote, helping Lula gain support.

Lula has shifted focus to voters’ economic concerns, including social benefits, a shorter work week with no pay cuts, and debt forgiveness. He also took a tougher stance on crime and his campaign urged supporters to vote.

The campaign warned that Bolsonaro’s proposed spending cuts could threaten public services and social benefits. Lula also received support from voters motivated by opposition to Bolsonaro and some who supported other candidates in the first round.

Read also | Brazil election: Lula wins historic fourth term, defeating Bolsonaro

Here’s how Lula won the Brazilian election:

At a time when many in Rio de Janeiro doubted whether the incumbent president would be able to overturn the result, a WhatsApp channel, “Lula’s Army,” emerged and quickly grew to 10.8 million followers. The channel was run by Congressman André Janones, who encouraged supporters to share videos, promote hashtags related to the president, and recruit new voters.

His surge between the two voting rounds stood out because it signaled a shift in Brazil’s established online political landscape.

For years, supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro and other conservatives have been widely seen as having the upper hand in digital mobilization, particularly through WhatsApp and Telegram. The emergence of a WhatsApp channel supporting Lula’s campaign has reportedly convinced undecided supporters that the Brazilian left has found a way to compete in the digital space.

The shift was notable, especially since social media has played a key role in Brazilian politics since Jair Bolsonaro’s election victory in 2018, with WhatsApp networks becoming a defining feature of political campaigns.

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Voter turnout increased by nearly three million from the first round to the second round, an unusual trend in Brazil, where absenteeism typically increases after the initial vote. Absenteeism fell to the lowest level in a Brazilian presidential election, suggesting that Lula was effectively encouraging his supporters to cast their ballots.

What did Lula’s army do?

Posts on Lula’s Army channel often provided supporters with pre-written messages to forward to friends and family. They also assigned specific online tasks aimed at increasing the president’s visibility on social media platforms.

The congressman regularly urged his “troops” to spread the latest campaign video or push a new hashtag into wider circulation.

“Guys, urgent!”, “Don’t go to bed yet”, “No food before the mission!” and “I have one more task before you are released” were among the instructions.

On the eve of the election, Janones staged a 24-hour live event, dubbed the “turnaround broadcast”, even as polls continued to point to victory for Lula’s rival. The strategy worked despite concerns among Labor members that the congressman’s often confrontational style on social media could undermine the more moderate image they hoped to project in the incumbent president.

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Factors that worked in Lulina’s favor

In addition to an aggressive social media campaign, here’s a list of other factors that helped turn the tide in Lula’s favor:

1. Protect Brazil’s democracy by keeping Bolsonaro out: Lula’s historic victory bucked a recent trend across Latin America, where voters have shifted to the right and elected policies associated with US President Donald Trump. For many Brazilians, the vote was about more than da Silva’s return to power, The Wall Street Journal reported. They saw it as a way to keep the Bolsonaro family out of office and protect Brazil’s hard-won democracy.

2. Persuasion: His surprise victory on October 25 came after the incumbent convinced millions to cast their votes in the second round, especially those who missed out on voting in the first round. Lula’s Workers’ Party asked for the extension of polling hours on Sunday after reports that some local governments had cut back on bus services used by poorer voters, who mostly support the president.

His campaign also stepped up efforts to reach out to voters who did not cast ballots in the first round. It portrays Bolsonaro’s proposed spending cuts as a threat to public services and social benefits.

3. Shifting focus away from Trump: After Lula suffered a setback in the first round of the election, he shifted his campaign focus from warning against Washington’s meddling in Brazil’s elections to voters’ economic frustration. The Wall Street Journal reported that Lula promised to increase payments under the Bolsa Família welfare program, supported a shorter work week without a pay cut, and promised widespread debt relief for struggling households.

4. A hardened attitude towards crime: He also toughened his stance on crime, breaking with his party’s traditional stance of supporting the prosecution of 16-year-olds as adults for particularly serious crimes.