Supporters of Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva react in Rio de Janeiro after his win against Flávio Bolsonaro in Brazil’s presidential election runoff. Photograph: Raquel Cunha/Reuters
Supporters of Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva react in Rio de Janeiro after his win against Flávio Bolsonaro in Brazil’s presidential election runoff. Photograph: Raquel Cunha/Reuters
What you need to know about the historic Brazilian election vote
It has just gone past 06:15am in Brasília and 09:15am in London, where I am blogging from. Here is a quick recap of the main updates from one of the most significant and bruising elections in Brazilian history:
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the 80-year-old Brazilian president, has staged a dramatic election comeback, defeating his far-right opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro, to claim a historic fourth term in power.
Lula secured 51.79% of the votes compared with Bolsonaro’s 48.21%, according to Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court – about 4.4m more votes
Flávio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, refused to accept the election result, and has called for it to be annulled.
The 45-year-old senator called into question a late-Sunday decision by a Lula-appointed supreme court justice that extended voting by two hours over alleged voter transport irregularities.
His refusal to concede defeat has echoes of his father’s reaction after losing to Lula in 2022. Jair Bolsonaro never accepted his loss and was later sentenced by the supreme court to 27-years in prison for plotting a coup to remain in power.
Lula, who highlighted a track record of falling poverty and inequality during his campaign, becomes the first president in Brazilian history to win a fourth term.
It is also the first time, since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1988, that a candidate who lost the first round of voting went on to overturn the result and win the presidency. Lula’s new term is set to begin on 5 January 2027.
The leftist president’s victory is a blow for the US president, who had been hoping Bolsonaro would become the latest in a series of pro-Trump leaders to take power in South America.
Numerous world leaders have congratulated Lula for his dramatic election win, but so far Donald Trump has remained silent.
Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo published an analysis showing that only 34,330 votes, or 0.03% of the total, were cast after the original 5pm closing time, an insignificant number compared with the 4.4 million-vote margin by which president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeated his opponent.
The decision to extend voting until 7pm so that voters who had been unable to access the mandatory free public transport could cast their ballots is at the heart of far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro’s attempt to have the election annulled.
However, the president of the electoral court, justice Kassio Nunes Marques, has already said the extension did not affect the result and, like the leaders of other Brazilian institutions including the supreme court and congress, has recognised Lula’s re-election.
So few votes were actually cast because, as the decision to extend voting hours came minutes after 5pm, the vast majority of electronic voting machines had already been closed and could not be reopened.
The analysis was carried out at Folha de S.Paulo’s request by data journalist and university professor Pedro Burgos, who believes most of the 34,000 votes cast after 5pm were from voters who were already queuing when the original voting period ended – meaning they would have been able to vote even without the extension.
The British foreign secretary has described Lula’s victory as “a historic win for the global progressive movement” as he offered his congratulations.
Ed Miliband wrote on X:
Congratulations to @LulaOficial on his re-election.
Together, our two governments have promoted shared values of democracy, social justice and climate action since 2024 and look forward to continuing to do so.
His victory is a historic win for the global progressive movement.
We reported earlier that the Kremlin had sent a warm message to Lula on his re-election, with Valdimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying it was “welcomed”, praising his efforts on the “development of bilateral relations” between the two nations.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also commented. He said:
For us in Ukraine, it is important that Brazil remains active in international affairs and continues to contribute to the effective protection of human rights, the rights of peoples, and the rights of states. We thank Brazil for its unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. We look forward to expanding our cooperation.
Dr Marco Vieira, associate professor in international relations at the University of Birmingham in England, has said there are three distinct reasons why the world should pay attention to the election result in Brazil. He said:
First, Lula’s victory reinforces Brazil’s role in spearheading efforts to protect the Amazon rainforest, with clear implications for global climate patterns, food production and the rights of Indigenous populations living in the region.
Second, Lula will now face a major challenge as the leader of South America’s largest economy and one of the region’s most important powers resisting what Trump has called his “Donroe Doctrine”, a policy of expanding US influence and asserting US dominance in the western Hemisphere.
Third, Brazil is likely to continue its international activism through forums such as BRICS and the G20, positioning itself as a leading voice in debates over global governance reform and the defence of multilateral institutions.
In a context of growing global uncertainty, the certainty of Lula leading Brazil for the next four years provides an important source of support for other middle powers seeking to rebuild trust in multilateralism and peaceful cooperation.
Tom Phillips is the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent
I’ve been speaking to Brazil’s former environment minister, the world-renowned environmentalist Marina Silva, here in São Paulo.
A few days ago she told me that if Flávio Bolsonaro were to be elected president he would seek to finish the “perverse project” of rampant rainforest destruction initiated by his jailed far-right father.
On Sunday night Silva was in a far more upbeat mood as she arrived at the hall where Lula was celebrating his election triumph with hundreds of ecstatic supporters.
“My heart is happy and filled with gratitude to God and the Brazilian people,” she told me.
“The thing I most feared was that our Indigenous territories would be invaded again [under another Bolsonaro government]. Now, I am certain that they will be preserved and that there is no risk of illegal miners returning to destroy these populations,” Silva said.
Brazil's former minister of the environment Marina Silva. Photograph: Adriano Machado/Reuters
Jair Bolsonaro spent his 2019-22 presidency stripping away environmental and Indigenous protests and was nicknamed “Captain Chainsaw” because of the devastation inflicted on the environment under his watch.
After beating Bolsonaro in the 2022 election, Lula launched a major crackdown to evict illegal miners from Indigenous lands and a broader environmental offensive across the Amazon that cut deforestation to its lowest levels since the late 80s.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, has staged a dramatic election fightback, defeating his far-right opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro, to claim a historic fourth term in power.
However, soon after Brazil’s electoral authority confirmed Lula’s victory, Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat and asked for the results to be annulled.
Following in the footsteps of his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who four years ago also refused to acknowledge his defeat to Lula – before attempting a coup and being convicted for it – the senator cited a supreme court justice’s decision to extend voting hours as the alleged reason.
His claim apears to be making little headway, with president of the electoral court, justice Kassio Nunes Marques, and the heads of the supreme court, the lower house and the senate all recognising the result and congratulating the incumbent on his re-election.
The unexpected result has caused some market turmoil, with Brazil’s National Treasury cancelling auctions of inflation-linked and fixed-rate government bonds, the São Paulo stock exchange halting trading, and Brazil’s real weakened 12.2% against the US dollar.
The Kremlin has welcomed Lula’s election victory, saying the leftist president had done “a lot” to develop ties with Russia. Numerous other world leaders have congratulated Lula for his dramatic election win, but so far Donald Trump has remained silent.
Brazil’s National Treasury said in a statement on Monday it has canceled the conventional auctions of inflation-linked and fixed-rate government bonds scheduled for 27 October and 29 October, Reuters reports.
Reuters reports that the currency market speculators have had their say on the election result – Brazil’s real weakened 12.2% against the US dollar in spot trading early on Monday.
