Lula wins Brazil's runoff with 51.79%, Flávio Bolsonaro refuses to concede

A narrow fourth term for Lula

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected president of Brazil for a fourth time in the runoff held on Sunday, 25 October, taking 51.79% of the vote against 48.21% for Flávio Bolsonaro. Counted totals were 64.25 million votes for Lula and 59.82 million for Bolsonaro, while one report gave the split as 51.75% to 48.25%. Bolsonaro had finished first in the first round, which makes this the first time since democracy returned that a candidate trailing after the first round has won the presidency in the runoff. Final polls from Datafolha and Quaest had shown a one-point lead, within a margin of error of ±2%. The Supreme Electoral Court said the victory was mathematically secured once 98.87% of polling stations had been counted.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva64.25

Flávio Bolsonaro59.82

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

64.25 million votes

Flávio Bolsonaro

59.82 million votes

Data from the article text

Voting extended by two hours

A Supreme Court judge extended voting by two hours on Sunday, after requests from both campaigns. The Lula campaign said buses had been pulled from service in several cities, which kept voters from reaching polling stations, particularly in northeastern strongholds. Transport problems were also cited in states including São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The Bolsonaro campaign's request blamed bad weather and heavy rain in several cities and asked for voting to run until 19:00 local time. Lula called on the courts to act, saying:

“What we want is simple: honest elections where everyone has the right to vote.”

Bolsonaro rejects the result

Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator and son of former president Bolsonaro, did not accept the outcome. Speaking in Brasília, he called the result unexplainable.

“It is impossible for us to recognise the elections.”

His legal team will seek to annul the election, and he argued that the rules of the game had changed. The core of his challenge is the decision to extend voting, although both campaigns had formally asked for that extension.

Celebrations and Lula's first words

Thousands of Lula supporters poured into the streets after the result, chanting, waving flags and setting off fireworks in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Lula appeared smiling and raised his fist. In his first remarks, delivered in São Paulo, he said Brazilians had gone to the polls because they were convinced their vote mattered for protecting democracy. He expressed pride in his record of elected terms:

“I feel enormous pride, because I am the only president of the Republic without a university degree who has been elected four times democratically in this country.”

He also said he had never won an election in the first round but had never lost one in the second, a remark tied to his advance to the runoff.

What comes next

Lula's fourth term runs to 2030, and the strength of the right in congressional elections three weeks earlier limits his room for manoeuvre. Less than two weeks before the runoff, Congress approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing two days of rest per week without a cut in pay, which Lula supported and which is estimated to have helped his candidacy. Brazil did not follow Argentina, Chile and Colombia, where candidates strongly backed by US President Donald Trump ran, and it remains one of the few progressive strongholds in Latin America. Among Brazilians voting abroad, Bolsonaro took the Americas count with 62.65% of valid votes, while Lula led in most European countries, including Portugal, France, Germany and Spain.