In short
- Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil’s presidency with 51.79% of the second-round vote, defeating Flávio Bolsonaro.
- Flávio Bolsonaro won the first round on 4 October with 47% to Lula’s 45%.
- Sunday’s second round saw the largest drop in abstention between two rounds of a Brazilian presidential election since 1989.
- Supreme Electoral Court president Kássio Nunes Marques confirmed Lula’s victory and said the two-hour extension of voting did not change the outcome.
- The gap between the two candidates was 4.4 million votes, and Lula’s new term runs from 5 January to 2030.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won a fourth term as Brazil’s president in Sunday’s second-round vote, taking 51.79% against Flávio Bolsonaro, son of convicted former president Jair Bolsonaro. The Supreme Electoral Court confirmed the result, which Lula described as a “loss for negativity, lies”.
How did Lula overturn a first-round deficit?
Flávio Bolsonaro won the first round on 4 October with 47% of the vote to Lula’s 45%. The runoff followed a campaign in which working-class voters in cities such as Osasco had turned from Lula towards Bolsonaro. Lula’s camp then concentrated on mobilising voters, after 33 million people did not vote in the first round. Sunday produced the largest drop in abstention between the two rounds of a Brazilian presidential election since 1989, and Lula had pinned his runoff hopes on turnout in Minas Gerais. He is the first president since Brazil’s return to civilian rule in 1985 to be elected after losing the first round.
Why is Flávio Bolsonaro contesting the result?
Flávio Bolsonaro has refused to recognise the result and called for it to be annulled, describing it as “inexplicable”. His challenge appears to centre on Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin’s decision to extend voting nationwide by two hours; some of Bolsonaro’s supporters note that Zanin was once Lula’s lawyer and allege bias. Both campaigns had requested an extension, with Lula’s side citing a lack of buses in São Paulo and Bahia and Bolsonaro’s citing heavy rain in the south of the country and in São Paulo. Kássio Nunes Marques, president of the Supreme Electoral Court and an appointee of Jair Bolsonaro, confirmed Lula’s victory and said the extension did not change the outcome. The 4.4 million-vote gap between the candidates makes the result more difficult to challenge. The dispute follows a campaign that also ran through the courts, including Lula’s request that the electoral court disqualify his rival Bolsonaro.
What did Lula say?
Lula told jubilant crowds that his victory was a “loss for negativity, lies”, adding “long live democracy”. In São Paulo, where he went to celebrate after Flávio Bolsonaro’s supporters left the house in Brasília where their candidate had watched the count, Lula said: “This, my fourth term, will be the best of any president in the history of this country. It will be the one in which I listen most to the Brazilian people.” He also said Brazil “will not accept being anyone’s backyard”, referring to what Donald Trump has called the “Donroe Doctrine”, which seeks to establish US dominance in the Western Hemisphere.
How did markets and foreign leaders react?
The São Paulo stock exchange opened 15% down, prompting a brief suspension before recovering slightly, and interest rate futures rose as investors scrutinised Lula’s fiscal plans. US President Donald Trump said the vote “looked like another rigged election”, without providing evidence. Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum wrote on X that “the people of Brazil won”, while Peru’s President Keiko Fujimori, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, French President Emmanuel Macron and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa also congratulated Lula.
What does Lula’s fourth term face?
Lula, who turns 81 on Tuesday, served two terms between January 2003 and December 2010 and a third from January 2023. His new mandate begins on 5 January and runs until 2030, making him the first Brazilian president to secure a fourth term. He takes office with a divided country, a challenger who does not recognise the result and a Congress packed with Bolsonaro allies. In an Instagram video on Monday, Flávio Bolsonaro said police had told him to hand over his passports and that he had been banned from leaving the country.
Frequently asked questions
Who won Brazil’s presidential election?
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won with 51.79% of the second-round vote, defeating Flávio Bolsonaro and securing a fourth term. The Supreme Electoral Court confirmed the result.
Why is Flávio Bolsonaro challenging the result?
He has refused to recognise the result and called for it to be annulled, focusing on Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin’s decision to extend voting by two hours. The electoral court said the extension did not change the outcome.
What did Donald Trump say about the Brazil election?
The US president said the vote “looked like another rigged election”, without providing evidence or further details.
When does Lula’s fourth term begin?
The new mandate starts on 5 January and runs until 2030. Lula turns 81 the day after the result.
With reporting from BBC News.
Stock image, not from the events described. Free Toronto city skyline monochrome — rawpixel / Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0)
