Supreme Court extended voting by two hours after both campaigns sought delays
Official results from Sunday’s runoff showed Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva elected president of Brazil with more than 51% of the vote, defeating Flávio Bolsonaro, who received more than 48% as more than 96% of ballots had been counted. Lula’s victory handed him a fourth term and returned him to office after he narrowly defeated former President Jair Bolsonaro in 2022; his political career already included three nonconsecutive presidential terms.
The closely fought contest drew international attention for its implications for a growing right-wing movement in Latin America, the future of the Amazon rainforest and the fate of Brazil’s roughly 40-year-old democracy. The election brought together two well-established political camps.
Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, is the son of Jair Bolsonaro, who narrowly lost to Lula in 2022 and is serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup to overturn that result. Flávio had pledged to pardon his father, and his campaign had promised closer relations with President Trump.
Problems disrupted voting on election day. Around midday, Lula’s campaign requested an extension of voting hours, arguing that some local governments had reduced bus service and made polling stations harder for voters to reach. Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign also sought an extension, citing heavy rain in some states.
Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin eventually ordered voting extended by two hours beyond the normal 5 p.m. closing time. The order reached some polling stations after officials had deactivated their electronic voting machines, meaning voting could not resume there.
At one polling station in Rio de Janeiro, 36-year-old accountant Manuela Tunas arrived shortly after 6 p.m. after her flight into the city was delayed. She hoped to vote but could not cast a ballot. “This is absurd,” she said. “If some people can vote, and others can’t, it’s unfair.”
Because the election pitted two well-established political camps against each other, Brazilians showed little enthusiasm for street campaigning in the early months. Flávio Bolsonaro’s first-place finish in the first round on Oct. 4 energized the contest, and in recent days supporters of both candidates filled rallies and flooded social media in an effort to sway voters.
Lula’s message of continuity and a focus on social spending prevailed. Alessandra Miguel, a 35-year-old spa worker who voted for Lula in Rocinha, a favela in Rio de Janeiro, said, “I think people woke up about the risk of a Bolsonaro government after the first round, and the mobilization made a difference.”
Lula will govern a sharply divided country. Brazilian political scientist Jairo Nicolau, who studies presidential elections, said one of the most striking features of this year’s contest was the rigidity of Brazilians’ political allegiances. Unlike in past years, he said, “people’s identity of belonging to a tribe became more important than how they view different policy options.”