Brazil opens presidential election with 158 million voters called to polls

The presidential contest

More than 158 million Brazilians are called to the polls on Sunday, 4 October 2026, for general elections to choose the next president, state governors, federal senators, and legislative deputies. Incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva seeks a fourth presidential term at age 80, facing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Opinion polls indicate a technical tie between the two frontrunners in an election defined by strong political polarization. Four additional candidates (Romeu Zema, Augusto Cury, Ronaldo Caiado, and Renan Santos) together hold under 10% in opinion surveys, though their voter share could force the presidential contest into a runoff. If no candidate secures more than 50% of the valid votes on Sunday, the Superior Electoral Court has scheduled a second round for 25 October 2026.

Three decades of electronic voting

Voters across Brazil are selecting representatives for six distinct public offices through the country's electronic voting machines, marking 30 years of the digital voting system. The technical project began in 1995 when the Superior Electoral Court established a technical commission directed by researchers from the National Institute for Space Research and the Aerospace Technical Centre. The operational deployment involved technical institutions linked to the armed forces, leading to the system's first municipal election trial in 1996 across 57 cities with 32 million voters. Because voters must type specific numeric codes for each candidate into custom machines, electoral authorities encourage voters to carry a written note to avoid typing errors at the terminal.

Before leaving home, write down on a piece of paper the order of the positions you will fill in on the electronic voting machine and the numbers of the candidates you intend to vote for.

Diaspora voting in Portugal

Voting is mandatory under Brazilian law for all literate citizens aged 18 to 70, including those residing abroad. Outside Brazil, citizens cast ballots exclusively for the presidency and vice-presidency, while regional and legislative offices remain restricted to domestic voters. Portugal hosts 134,797 registered Brazilian electors, making it the second largest overseas electoral college behind the United States. Polling stations across Portugal operate from 08:00 to 17:00 local time, opening when the time in Brasília is 04:00. The vote is organized across three consular jurisdictions: Lisbon accounts for approximately 79,000 registered voters across three university faculties, Porto gathers over 47,000 at an engineering institute, and Faro registers nearly 9,000 at the consulate headquarters.

Identification rules and procedural guidelines

Participation abroad is restricted to expatriates who completed their electoral transfer to Portugal with the electoral authority before the May deadline. Electors who missed the registration window must submit an absence justification through the official mobile application or the electoral portal, with registration transfers resuming on 3 November 2026. Voters present official photographic identification, such as a passport or identity card, even if the document has passed its expiration date. Electors who completed biometric registration can present the digital voter identification on their mobile device. In Lisbon, consular authorities also accept Portuguese residence permits, citizen cards under the Porto Seguro Treaty, and national passports for dual citizens.