Lula wins Brazil runoff after WhatsApp campaign led by André Janones

A late turnaround at the polls

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil's presidential runoff with close to 52% of the vote, finishing 3.5 points ahead of the right-wing candidate Flávio Bolsonaro. Polls taken before the final televised debate had shown him trailing by an average of two points, so the result reversed a deficit the polls had recorded. The runoff was held on 26 October. Lula publicly thanked André Janones, the deputy who ran his digital push, when he claimed victory, according to The New York Times.

The WhatsApp channel behind the push

A WhatsApp channel called Lula's Army grew from about 60,000 subscribers to nearly 11 million between the two rounds, according to 20minutes. BBC Indonesian put the follower count at 10.8 million, while La Razón said it had passed 10 million after its creation on 5 October. Members received short missions, such as sharing a video that promoted Lula or reposting content unfavourable to Flávio Bolsonaro. Janones also urged supporters to make campaign videos go viral and to push hashtags, and the channel supplied ready-made templates so followers could forward messages to friends and family. Lula himself began filming selfie videos about three weeks before the runoff to reach younger voters, even though he had said the previous year that he did not own a smartphone. On the night before the vote, Janones ran a 24-hour livestream that BBC calls a 'turnaround livestream', at a time when polls still showed Bolsonaro with a chance of winning.

Janones on his role

André Janones, 42, a federal deputy from Minas Gerais, led what The New York Times describes as an impromptu, nonstop digital campaign to bring Lula supporters to the polls. In a two-hour interview with the newspaper, he said he had averaged about four hours of sleep a night during the final three-week sprint. He described his role in strong terms.

“No matter what happens in my life from now on, my existence has been worth it.”

La Razón reports that Janones studied law on university scholarships, was a member of the Workers' Party between 2003 and 2012, and rose to prominence in 2018 after a video backing protesters in a truckers' strike went viral. Critics accused him of spreading disinformation and running coordinated harassment campaigns. The same report says contact has been made through intermediaries about possible help for Pedro Sánchez's campaign ahead of the 29 November general election in Spain, but it is not known whether Janones has accepted.

Bolsonaro and the wider contest

The New York Times also reports that Mr. Bolsonaro left Brazil for the United States after authorities ordered him to submit his passports, because he was under investigation for money laundering. In France, La France insoumise, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, launched its own WhatsApp channel called 'L'équipe de Mélenchon', which 20minutes says had close to 100,000 subscribers shortly after launch. The party's coordinator, Manuel Bompard, presented the model as transferable.

“What the Brazilians did, we can do ourselves in France.”

The French party is looking ahead to a presidential election about six months away, in which Marine Le Pen is seen as the likely winner, according to 20minutes.