How elderly ‘unsung heroes’ powered Lula’s historic fightback in Brazil

Celia de Oliveira Soares, 101, foi uma das mais de 1 milhão de idosos que votaram na segunda volta após ter perdido a primeira fase da eleição. Fotografia: João Laet/The Guardian.

Prefer the Guardian on GoogleIt had been nearly a decade since Celia de Oliveira Soares last voted, and months since the 101-year-old great-grandmother last left her home.

But on 25 October, when Brazil held what many considered its most important presidential election in decades, relatives helped Soares into a wheelchair and drove her to a nearby school to make sure the far-right candidate, Flávio Bolsonaro, did not prevail.

Soares clung to the banister as, step by step, she climbed two flights of stairs to the polling booth under the watchful eye of her granddaughter’s husband, Marcio Marques.

Inside, the frail but jaunty centenarian keyed the number “13” – representing Bolsonaro’s leftwing rival, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – into an electronic voting machine and pressed confirm.

Ver imagem em tela cheia Soares, com sua neta Poliana Soares Jordão, disse que não gostava dos Bolsonaros, 'então a coisa eficiente a fazer era sair e votar.

Photograph: João Laet/The Guardian“I don’t like Bolsonaro or his father. So the efficient thing to do was go out and vote,” Soares added, as her grandsons, Tito and Ravi, played on the balcony around her surrounded by pot plants and books.

Soares is one of more than 1 million elderly people who, having missed the election’s 4 October first round – which Lula lost – decided to vote in the second.

Nunca desde o retorno da democracia na década de 1980 o perdedor da primeira volta havia se recuperado, mas Lula fez exatamente isso. E, após o surpreendente ressurgimento de Lula, os eleitores idosos foram aclamados como os heróis desconhecidos da eleição – inclusive pelo próprio Lula.

At his 81st birthday party last week, the leftist veteran shed tears while describing his gratitude to the elderly people who helped him clinch a historic fourth term while clutching walking frames and sticks.

View image in fullscreenSoares with her granddaughter Poliana Soares Jordão, right, her granddaughter’s husband, Marcio Marques, left, and her great-grandchildren Tito and Ravi.

Fotografia: João Laet/The Guardian No nordeste do Brasil, onde Lula nasceu em pobreza rural na década de 1940, uma aposentada de 114 anos chamada Josefa Pereira da Conceição foi às urnas vestindo uma camiseta vermelha com o rosto de Lula e o slogan “Força do povo”.

Election experts are still crunching the numbers to fully understand how Lula pulled off his unprecedented fightback, finding 10. 3m extra votes between the first and second rounds.

Some believe elderly people were also crucial, noting how 1. 4 million of the 3 million extra voters who took part in the second round after skipping the first were over 70.

Pre-election polls suggested such voters were more inclined to vote for Lula.

View image in fullscreenLula wipes away tears as he thanks supporters during an event to celebrate his 81st birthday on 27 October. Photograph: Eraldo Peres/APSpeaking at Lula’s victory celebration, the former minister Simone Tebet called the result a cross-generational triumph which sent a message to the democratic world.

The political journalist José Roberto de Toledo said there was concrete evidence of higher turnout among older voters in the runoff, particularly those aged 60 to 79.

Voting is only mandatory in Brazil for those aged 18 to 69.

View image in fullscreenLea Zorzella, 90, left her hospital in São Paulo to vote in the runoff election. Photograph: Alexandre Meneghini/ReutersIn the runoff, faced with a straight choice between Lula, a familiar and predictable figure even for detractors, and Bolsonaro, who represented a leap into the unknown, many preferred the former.

Particularmente prejudicial foi o voto de caráter autoritário do político de direita de “re-democratizar” o país já democrático – algo que Toledo suspeitava ter alimentado temores de que Bolsonaro aspirasse a ser “o imperador do Brasil”.

View image in fullscreenAn elderly voter at a polling station in Porto Alegre on 25 October. Photograph: Diego Vara/ReutersEven before those remarks, Soares fretted over the direction Brazil might take under Flávio Bolsonaro, whose father, the former president Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting to seize power after losing the 2022 election to Lula.

Marques, a 51-year-old food entrepreneur, said his grandmother-in-law was also critical of how Jair Bolsonaro undermined vaccination efforts during the Covid pandemic, when 700,000 Brazilians died.

Soares lembra de ter vivido sob regime ditatorial quando era criança sob Getúlio Vargas e não queria que seus bisnetos experimentassem isso.

Photograph: João Laet/The GuardianSitting in her armchair overlooking Rio’s Guanabara Bay, five days after the election, Soares voiced excitement that Lula would soon start his fourth and final term.

Occasionally, Soares’s memory betrayed her and she needed reminding that Lula had pulled off one of modern history’s greatest democratic comebacks. “But that’s wonderful!” she beamed.

Reminded of Lula’s feat, Soares predicted Bolsonaro would flee abroad.

Soares, que viveu quatro golpes, 16 eleições presidenciais e quatro vitórias de Lula, não ficou surpreso. “He must have gone to the US, then,” o centenário adivinhou, corretamente.

Em números

• Celia de Oliveira Soares, 101, foi uma das mais de 1 milhão de idosos que votaram na segunda volta após ter p