Brazil Election Results 2026: President Lula elected for a fourth term, beating Flávio Bolsonaro in a knife-edge vote

Brazil's President Lula won a fourth term with 51.8% of the vote in the October 25 runoff, beating Senator Flávio Bolsonaro after a day of delays at polling stations.

3 min readOct 26, 2026 07:11 AM IST First published on: Oct 26, 2026 at 07:10 AM IST

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is seeking reelection, waves after voting in the presidential runoff in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil. (Photo: AP)

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won re-election in the presidential runoff on Sunday, October 25, according to the Associated Press (AP). With all votes counted, the electoral court said Lula, who turns 81 soon, took 51.8% of the vote, a lead of nearly 4.4 million votes over Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.

Lula is a vocal critic of US President Donald Trump, and AP said his win will bring relief to those who oppose growing US influence in Latin America. The result came after a day of confusion at polling stations, where voting was extended by two hours, a move that could lead Bolsonaro to take legal action. Lula’s new term starts on January 5, 2027.

Voting ran two hours late

Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin ruled three minutes before polls were due to close that they should stay open for two more hours. Both candidates had asked for the extension. Lula’s team asked after problems with buses that take people to polling stations in São Paulo and Salvador, two cities that tend to back him. Bolsonaro’s team asked because of heavy rain in southern Brazil, where he has more support.

The ruling delayed the count by two hours. In Brasília, most volunteers who oversaw the count at a school left 15 to 20 minutes after polls closed, once they had passed the figures to the electoral authorities. At a polling station in Rio de Janeiro, the voting machines had been switched off minutes after the scheduled close and could not be turned back on. AP said it was not clear how many polling stations stayed open after the set time.

Nikolas Ferreira, an ally of Bolsonaro, pointed out that Zanin used to be Lula’s lawyer. At the time AP wrote its report, Bolsonaro had not yet responded to the result.

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What the result means for the region

Lula’s win goes against a trend in Latin America, where a growing number of right-of-centre candidates who are allies of Trump have won elections. With Lula in office, both Brazil and Mexico, the two most populous countries in the region, have left-of-centre leaders. AP said the result also allows Brazil, whose economy is worth $2.6 trillion a year, to stay independent of the US, despite the higher tariffs Trump has imposed.

Crowds gathered in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Lula’s campaign shared a video of him celebrating with his wife, First Lady Rosângela da Silva, and allies. He wore red star-shaped glasses and kissed her. In Rio, a woman in red, the colour of Lula’s supporters, shouted “You lost! Cry harder!” at four men in yellow and green, the colours linked to Bolsonaro.

Rodrigo Valentim, a 51-year-old businessman who backs Bolsonaro, said another Lula government would hurt the economy. “The country is collapsing,” he said.

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