Lula wins Brazil's presidential runoff with 51.8% as Flávio Bolsonaro refuses to concede

The result

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won the presidential runoff in Brazil, and the electoral court has announced his victory after 100% of the vote was counted. Lula, the Workers' Party incumbent, holds a lead of nearly 4.4 million votes, or 51.8% of the total, over Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. He turns 81 on Tuesday, 27 October.

BBC reporting describes the win as Lula's fourth term in office, which makes him the first president in Brazil's history to be elected to four terms. The outcome gives relief to critics of widening US influence in Latin America.

Election night

The runoff was held on Sunday, 25 October. Late in the day, polling stations across Brazil faced chaos after a last-minute decision to extend voting by two hours. The announcement of the final count came in the evening. Guardian correspondent Tom Phillips was in São Paulo at the Workers' Party vote count to follow the result.

The margin was narrower than the first round had suggested. Flávio Bolsonaro had won the first round earlier in October, and the Guardian described the runoff as a fightback by Lula after that surprise result.

Bolsonaro's refusal to concede

Flávio Bolsonaro has refused to accept defeat and has demanded that the election be annulled. BBC notes that he is following his father's pattern of not recognising election results.

Jair Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup after he lost the 2022 election, according to the Guardian. That history is the backdrop to the current dispute over the result.

What comes next

The Guardian frames the result as a consolidation of the democratic resurgence Brazil has experienced since Lula first took office. With the challenger rejecting the outcome, the result is contested even though the electoral court has declared a winner.