FORMER Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva vowed to fight for a left victory in the 2022 election as he addressed cheering supporters on his release from prison at the weekend.

Lula, last year’s election frontrunner until he was barred for a corruption conviction that is widely seen as politically motivated, said supporters should accept Jair Bolsonaro’s election victory despite the “lawfare” deployed to put him behind bars and give Mr Bolsonaro a free run.

But he said Brazilians should work to defeat the “ultra right” at the next election in 2022 and promised: “We are going to do a lot of fighting. Fighting is not one day on, then three months off. Fighting is every day.”