Lula Wins Brazil Presidential Runoff, Defeating Flávio Bolsonaro for a Fourth Term
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil's presidential runoff on Sunday with 51.75% of valid votes to 48.25% for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, reversing his first-round loss and becoming the first person elected to Brazil's presidency four times.
Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court declared Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva mathematically elected on Sunday night after he defeated Senator Flávio Bolsonaro in the presidential runoff, with more than 98 percent of polling stations counted. Lula held about 51.75 percent of valid votes to 48.25 percent for Bolsonaro, a margin of more than 4.2 million votes, according to figures reported from the court. The figures were provisional pending completion of the count.
The result reversed the order of the October 4 first round, when Bolsonaro finished first with 47.03 percent of valid votes to Lula’s 45.16 percent, a gap of about 2.2 million votes. Since direct presidential elections resumed in 1989, no candidate had won a runoff after finishing second in the first round. Lula, 80, of the Workers’ Party, won the presidency in 2002 and 2006 and returned to office in 2023. He is the first person elected to the office four times.
A count that changed hands
Lula led the first returns on Sunday evening before Bolsonaro moved ahead. The senator held a narrow advantage with about 42 percent of polling stations counted, before Lula regained the lead and extended it as the count neared completion.
Voting closed two hours later than scheduled after Supreme Federal Court Justice Cristiano Zanin ordered polling stations across the country to keep receiving votes until 7 p.m. Brasília time. The order followed a petition by Lula’s coalition citing a shortage of public buses for voters in three municipalities in the state of Bahia. Zanin later said both campaigns had raised transport problems, and the release of results was delayed until voting ended. The order caused confusion at polling stations, since it came around the scheduled 5 p.m. closing time and some stations had already shut down.
Crime, prices and the campaign
The campaign was dominated by the cost of living, crime and corruption, according to CNN. Bolsonaro promised to designate major criminal factions as terrorist groups, expand prisons and lower the age of criminal responsibility. Lula signaled support for lowering the age from 18 to 16 for certain serious crimes, though he opposed including it in a pending constitutional amendment.
President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he was monitoring the runoff. He declined to endorse either candidate, though he had previously praised Bolsonaro’s first-round performance. Bolsonaro is the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, whom Lula defeated in 2022. The former president is serving a prison sentence for attempting to overturn his 2022 defeat.
Lula campaigned on social programs, support for household incomes and national sovereignty, while Bolsonaro made tougher action against organized crime the center of his campaign. Lula’s new term begins on January 5, 2027.
Reporting based on coverage by CNN, Reuters and the Browny Times.
