Lula Wins Fourth Term in Brazil as Flávio Bolsonaro Refuses to Concede

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Harris
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Key Points

  • Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil’s presidential runoff on Sunday with 51.79% of valid votes to 48.21% for Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, according to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).
  • The TSE’s official results show Lula with 64,256,232 votes and Bolsonaro with 59,826,041, a margin of about 4.4 million, with all polling sections counted.
  • Bolsonaro said it was “impossible to concede” and that his legal team would seek to annul the vote over a two-hour extension of voting hours.
  • As of early Monday ET, no formal annulment request had been reported filed, and the TSE president had confirmed Lula’s victory, the BBC reported.
  • Lula, 80, is set to begin a fourth, non-consecutive term on Jan. 5, 2027.

Official Brazil election results show President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva winning a fourth term, defeating Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro in Sunday’s presidential runoff. Bolsonaro, a son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, refused to concede and said he would seek to have the vote annulled.

Lula, a leftist who first served two terms starting in 2003 and returned to office in 2023, becomes the first Brazilian politician to win the presidency four times, the BBC reported, citing the news magazine Veja.

What happened

With 100% of polling sections counted, the TSE’s official results listed Lula, of the Workers’ Party (PT), as elected with 64,256,232 votes, or 51.79% of valid votes. Bolsonaro, of the Liberal Party (PL), received 59,826,041 votes, or 48.21%.

The runoff reversed the order of the Oct. 4 first round, which Bolsonaro led. Reuters reported that Lula is the first candidate since Brazil’s return to democracy in the 1980s to be elected after finishing second in the first round. The BBC reported the same milestone.

In his victory speech, Lula said “Long live democracy” and added that “this, my fourth term, will be the best of any president in the history of this country,” according to the BBC. He also repeated a campaign line that Brazil will “not accept being anyone’s backyard,” which the BBC and DW described as a message about U.S. influence in Latin America.

Supporters gathered on Paulista Avenue in São Paulo to celebrate, AFP and the Guardian reported.

Latest development

Bolsonaro said it was “impossible to concede” and called the outcome “inexplicable,” according to the BBC and the Guardian. He said his campaign’s legal team would ask for the election to be annulled.

The voting extension at the center of the dispute

Bolsonaro’s objection centers on a ruling by Supreme Federal Court Justice Cristiano Zanin that extended voting by two hours. Bolsonaro called the extension “unacceptable” and said “the rules of the game were changed,” the BBC and Reuters reported.

Both campaigns had asked for more voting time on Sunday. Valor International reported that Lula’s coalition sought an extension after complaints about a shortage of public buses serving polling stations, particularly in Bahia. The BBC reported that Bolsonaro’s campaign also requested longer hours, citing heavy rain in parts of southern Brazil and São Paulo.

According to Valor, TSE President Kassio Nunes Marques let the voting deadline pass without ruling on the PT request, and the party then turned to the Supreme Court, where Zanin granted it. Nunes Marques, who was appointed to the bench by Jair Bolsonaro, later confirmed Lula’s victory and said the extension did not cause problems for the count or the electoral process, the BBC reported.

As of early Monday ET, no formal annulment request had been reported filed with the TSE or the Supreme Court, and no major unrest had been reported.

Why it matters

No Brazilian presidential election has ever been annulled, the BBC noted. Electoral law experts contacted by BBC News Brasil said the chances of an annulment were remote, in part because the Bolsonaro campaign had itself asked for voting to be extended.

Mario Braga, a Latin America analyst at the risk consultancy RANE, told Reuters there could be right-wing protests in coming days, but “it’s very improbable that it will lead to the reversal of the result.”

The refusal to concede echoes 2022, when Jair Bolsonaro lost to Lula and never accepted the result. He was later sentenced to 27 years for plotting a coup to remain in power, according to Reuters and the Guardian. The BBC reported that he is serving the sentence under house arrest.

The result also matters for relations with Washington. In 2025, the U.S. imposed tariffs on Brazil in retaliation for the legal proceedings against Jair Bolsonaro, DW reported, and Valor reported that President Donald Trump imposed sanctions over the same case. Asked at the White House on Sunday, before the result, whether he backed either candidate, Trump declined to answer but said he was watching the election, Valor reported.

No State Department statement on the result had been reported as of early Monday ET. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney congratulated Lula, as did Sen. Bernie Sanders, according to Al Jazeera and the Guardian.

What happens next

Lula’s new term begins on Jan. 5, 2027, according to a TSE statement quoted by the Guardian.

Legal experts told Valor that the Supreme Court’s intervention opened the door to challenges. Diogo Rais, a professor of electoral law at Mackenzie University, warned that a jurisdictional conflict between the Supreme Court and the electoral court could trigger a political crisis.

Live updates are available from the BBC’s live page on Brazil’s election.

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