WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
  • Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won a fourth presidential term with 51.75%, defeating Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, who received 48.25%.
  • Lula overcame a first round loss, while Bolsonaro had led that vote with 47.12% support.
  • Justice Cristiano Zanin extended voting by two hours at polling stations that had not closed by the expected time.
  • Local authorities reportedly ordered the arrest of Salvador transport official Pablo Souza over the alleged bus incident.

Socialist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 80, won a fourth term as president of Brazil in Sunday’s runoff election, narrowly defeating conservative Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro. The bitterly contested race featured allegations of irregularities from both camps and an extraordinary Supreme Federal Tribunal intervention extending voting.

At press time, Lula led with 51.75% of the vote, representing about 64.066 million ballots. Sen. Bolsonaro had received 48.25%, or about 59.725 million votes, leaving a gap that authorities determined was too large to overcome with the remaining ballots.

The victory puts Lula back in power following his historic return to the presidency in 2022. The radical Marxist founder of the Workers’ Party, known as PT, is a convicted felon who was sentenced in 2019 to upwards of 20 years in prison.

Those charges involved the misuse of public funds during Lula’s first two presidential terms. His path back to the ballot opened after the Supreme Federal Tribunal overturned his conviction in 2021 on a technicality without revealing new information exonerating him in the case.

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Sen. Bolsonaro is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who challenged Lula in the 2022 presidential election. The younger Bolsonaro announced his presidential campaign in December after the Supreme Federal Tribunal convicted his father of offenses described as crimes against democracy.

The elder Bolsonaro was prosecuted for questioning the integrity of the 2022 election and allegedly attempting to poison Lula. Bolsonaro has aggressively denied those allegations and is currently under house arrest because of various health problems.

The former president has also been prohibited from seeking any public office until he is 105 years old. That left his son to carry the conservative banner against Lula in the latest presidential contest.

Lula’s latest win was historic for another reason. He captured the presidency after losing the first round, marking the first time in decades that a Brazilian candidate accomplished that feat.

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Brazil’s first round includes every presidential candidate and requires at least 50% support to avoid a runoff. If nobody crosses that threshold, the two candidates with the highest totals advance to a second election, where the candidate with the greatest absolute number of votes wins.

Sen. Bolsonaro finished first in the opening round with 47.12% support, outperforming polling expectations but falling short of the total needed to win outright. Lula received about 45% as he pursued his fourth term.

Most major polls conducted before Sunday’s runoff showed Sen. Bolsonaro holding a slight advantage. Many of those surveys, however, placed the contest within the margin of error.

The election took a controversial turn when the Supreme Federal Tribunal allowed voting times to be extended after Lula’s campaign reportedly complained about a shortage of buses for transporting voters. Critics alleged that the decision marred the election.

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The reported transportation complaints involved Salvador, Lauro de Freitas, and Feira de Santana. All three cities are located in Bahía, a northeastern region that has long served as a stronghold for Lula’s Workers’ Party.

Supreme Federal Tribunal Justice Cristiano Zanin issued an unprecedented ruling by a single justice late in the voting period. His order extended voting by two hours, moving the closing time from the previously expected 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. local time.

The decision delivered Lula the extension he had sought in a similar situation during the 2022 race against Jair Bolsonaro. In that contest, Supreme Federal Tribunal Justice Alexandre de Moraes rejected Lula’s effort.

Zanin’s ruling drew additional controversy because no other Supreme Federal Tribunal justice participated. It also allowed only polling stations that had not closed at the previously agreed time to continue accepting votes.

Polling stations that had already closed could not easily reopen without risking the integrity of the process. As a result, locations that remained open beyond the established closing time received another two hours to collect ballots, including stations presumably supported by Lula’s campaign.

The disputed bus episode also produced consequences beyond the extended voting schedule. Local authorities reportedly ordered the arrest of Pablo Souza, the Secretary of Transport of Salvador, in connection with the alleged incident.

Despite Sen. Bolsonaro’s first-round victory and slight advantage in many polls, Lula emerged from the runoff with the winning total. The Marxist president now heads toward a fourth term after a court intervention that ensured selected polling stations remained open for two additional hours.

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