Lula Claims Fourth Term After Vote Extension Draws Challenges

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva secured a record fourth term as Brazilian president on Sunday, overcoming a first-round deficit to win the runoff against Senator Flavio Bolsonaro.

Lula received more than 51 percent of the vote compared to 48 percent for Bolsonaro. Electoral authorities declared the winner after 98.76 percent of ballots were counted. The result was not certain until the final hours of the count, with the two candidates virtually tied in polling in the lead-up to the vote.

The campaign hinged on a reversal from the first round held on October 4. At that time, Bolsonaro led with 47.03 percent of the vote to Lula’s 45.16 percent, a margin of 2.2 million votes. Lula spent the intervening three weeks targeting voters who abstained in the first round and pitching his social programs to address cost-of-living concerns.

On Sunday evening, Bolsonaro briefly took the lead as ballots were counted. Lula gained the edge as results arrived from the northeast, a region with strong support for the Workers’ Party. Bolsonaro’s support base remains concentrated in the south, southeast, and center-west. No modern Brazilian candidate has won a runoff after finishing second in the first round.

The final hours of voting were disrupted by a last-minute extension ordered by Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin. Both campaigns had requested more time. Lula’s team accused officials of cutting public transport in several cities, while Bolsonaro’s camp cited heavy rain and flooding. In Minas Gerais, 349 polling stations lost electricity, though voting machines ran on backup batteries.

Zanin ordered stations open until 7 p.m. local time, extending the 5 p.m. deadline by two hours. Some stations had already shut down their electronic machines before the order arrived. Zanin later clarified that only stations still open could continue accepting voters. This created confusion, with some residents turned away despite the extension.

Bolsonaro has pledged to annul the vote, citing the extension as a source of confusion. In a post-election address, he accused Zanin of judicial malfeasance, noting that the justice served as Lula’s personal lawyer before his appointment to the Supreme Court in 2023. Bolsonaro stated, “He changes the rules of the game mid-game.”

Federal Police are investigating alleged election-related transport disruptions in five states. In Salvador, a court ordered the arrest of the city’s transport secretary over allegations of directed bus service cuts. Bolsonaro’s camp pointed to these incidents as evidence of interference, while also challenging Zanin’s impartiality due to his prior relationship with Lula.

Turnout played a decisive role. An estimated 33.4 million Brazilians abstained in the first round, representing about 21 percent of the electorate. Andrei Roman, head of polling firm AtlasIntel, noted that the drop in voter abstention in the runoff helped Lula. The final turnout figures by region may explain how the president turned the race.

Lula’s victory complicates the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has backed the Bolsonaro family. State Department officials reportedly pushed for sanctions against Brazil to weaken Lula. Trump Jr. voiced outrage over the vote extension on social media. In his victory speech, Lula said he overcame foreign interference and described the election as a defeat for lies.

At 80, Lula is set to become the oldest Brazilian president sworn in since the country’s return to democracy. He finished his speech by praising his supporters, stating, “I highly doubt that Russia, China, or the United States possess an army as victorious as the army of democracy in this country.”