Yes, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won Brazil's presidential runoff: the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) put him on 51.79% of valid votes against 48.21% for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, a margin of about 4.4 million votes, giving him a record fourth term. He is the first candidate since Brazil returned to democracy to lose the first round and still win the presidency, but his rival has refused to concede and says he will ask for the election to be annulled. Results came through in the early hours of Monday in Riyadh, after a last-minute extension pushed poll closing to 01:00 AST; if Brazilian time zones confuse you, our note on how clock changes shift times in Saudi Arabia helps, and for a wider world-affairs backdrop see how the United Nations was born on 24 October 1945.
The TSE declared Lula mathematically elected late on Sunday 25 October, Brasília time, and the word "Lula" went straight to the top of X's worldwide trends, with "Brazil", "OBRIGADA JANONES" and "VIVA A DEMOCRACIA" close behind. Searches for Lula also spiked on Google in the United States.
- X trends: "Lula" #1 worldwide, #2 in the US and #2 in the UK; "Brazil" in the top three in all three lists.
- X post counts: about 9.5 million posts mentioning Lula between 15:00 AST on Sunday and 09:20 AST on Monday, peaking at roughly 1.54 million in the hour after 03:00 AST.
- Google Trends (US): "lula" at 200K+ searches, still active, with "flávio bolsonaro" and "brazil elections 2026" as related queries.
- Checked at: 26 Oct 2026, 09:20 AST (06:20 GMT).
Key points
- Lula won 51.79% of valid votes to Flávio Bolsonaro's 48.21%, according to the TSE.
- He received 64.26 million votes, up from 53.88 million in the first round on 4 October, according to Reuters.
- Flávio Bolsonaro led the first round with 47.03% and has refused to concede, saying he will seek an annulment.
- A Supreme Court justice extended voting by two hours after both campaigns complained about voters being unable to reach polling stations.
- Lula's fourth term begins on 5 January 2027, facing the most conservative Congress since the return to democracy.
How Lula turned a first-round defeat into a win
The numbers behind the comeback
Three weeks ago this result looked unlikely. In the first round on 4 October, Flávio Bolsonaro, the senator son of jailed former president Jair Bolsonaro, finished ahead with 47.03% of valid votes to Lula's 45.16%, a lead of more than 2.2 million votes. No candidate in Brazil's democratic era had come from behind in the first round to win a runoff, and the incumbent's own camp admitted the campaign had been poorly organised.
The second round flipped that picture. Reuters' breakdown of the official count shows Lula adding more than 10 million votes between rounds, rising to 64.26 million, while Flávio Bolsonaro grew from 56.10 million to 59.82 million. The biggest single change was turnout: abstention fell from 21.08% to 19.21%, and blank and spoiled ballots also dropped, so more people who stayed home or voted blank in round one came out and picked a side. Lula's campaign had said all along that bringing those voters back was the only route to victory.
The map still shows a split country. Reuters reports that Lula won the city of São Paulo but lost to Flávio Bolsonaro in 573 of the state's 645 municipalities, a reminder that the win rests heavily on big urban centres rather than on broad national agreement.
Streets and social media
Analysts quoted by Reuters credit two things: a return to mass street rallies, including rallies that drew hundreds of thousands of people in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and an aggressive social media operation led in part by federal deputy André Janones. That explains why "OBRIGADA JANONES", Portuguese for "thank you, Janones", trended worldwide on X overnight. Lula himself said on the eve of the vote that "the people took over the campaign". The BBC also notes that his win goes against a regional pattern: Argentina, Chile and Colombia all now have conservative leaders.
Key facts at a glance
| Election | Brazil presidential runoff, Sunday 25 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Winner | Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers' Party), 51.79% · 64.26 million votes |
| Runner-up | Flávio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party), 48.21% · 59.82 million votes |
| Margin | About 4.4 million votes |
| First round (4 Oct) | Flávio Bolsonaro 47.03%, Lula 45.16% |
| Abstention | 19.21% (first round: 21.08%) |
| Polls closed | 19:00 Brasília (01:00 AST Monday) where still open, after a two-hour extension |
| New term starts | 5 January 2027 |
Why Flávio Bolsonaro is challenging the result
The two-hour extension
The dispute centres on a decision taken minutes before polls were due to close at 17:00 Brasília time. AP reports that Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin ruled three minutes before the scheduled end of voting to keep polling stations open for two more hours. According to the court's own published note, the case was brought by Lula's coalition over cuts to public bus services in Salvador, Feira de Santana and Lauro de Freitas in Bahia, citing an earlier Supreme Court ruling that authorities must provide free public transport on election days. Lula's team also complained about buses in São Paulo. Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign, for its part, asked the TSE for more time in southern states because of heavy rain, flooding and road closures.
Zanin wrote that both campaigns had raised transport problems, and the extension applied only at polling stations that had not already closed. Ballots from stations that closed on time were counted as normal. The effect was that the vote count began two hours late and the evening was chaotic, which is the window the losing side now points to.
Can the election be annulled?
Flávio Bolsonaro told supporters in Brasília that it was "impossible" to recognise the result in these circumstances and that he would ask for it to be annulled, calling the extension inexplicable. Electoral law specialists interviewed by BBC News Brasil describe an annulment as very unlikely: the margin of about 4.4 million votes is large, the extension was requested by both campaigns, and the election dates are fixed by Brazil's constitution, so there is no simple mechanism to rerun the vote. As of Monday morning Riyadh time there was no court ruling on any challenge, and the TSE result stands.
What Lula's fourth term will look like
Lula, who turns 81 on Tuesday, already served as president from 2003 to 2010 and has held office again since January 2023. He spent 2018 and 2019 in prison on corruption convictions that were later annulled, which cleared the way for his 2022 win over Jair Bolsonaro. His new term starts on 5 January 2027, the date set by a recent constitutional change, and lasts four years; by the end of it he will be 85.
Governing will be harder this time. Reuters reports that the Liberal Party and its allies could control more than 280 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and up to 50 in the Senate, a comfortable majority in both houses. One political scientist told Reuters Lula is likely to be "a weakened president from the start", with less sway over Supreme Court appointments and difficult coalitions. Lula's own response in his victory speech was blunt: he said he did not choose this Congress, the people did, and that he will work with it.
The economy is the other constraint. The government itself projects growth of 2.3% next year, and public debt is above 82% of GDP, the highest level since the pandemic. Yet Lula campaigned on new spending: a 15% increase to the Bolsa Família cash-transfer programme and free weekend public transport nationwide, a proposal that still has to be sent to Congress. Cash-support schemes are popular well beyond Brazil; we recently explained a very different example in our guide to the Saudi 500 riyal allowance and who gets it.
What we know
- The TSE result: Lula 51.79%, Flávio Bolsonaro 48.21% (Reuters, BBC, AP).
- The extension was ordered by Justice Zanin after requests from both campaigns (STF note, AP).
- Lula's new term begins on 5 January 2027 (BBC).
What we don't know yet
- Exactly what legal action Flávio Bolsonaro will file, and when.
- How Lula will build a working majority in a right-leaning Congress.
- How Washington will deal with a second Lula term after a tense campaign.
Why it matters
Brazil is a country of about 213 million people, oil-rich and, according to the BBC, holds the world's second-largest reserves of rare earth minerals. It is now the only large South American country without a right-wing government, and Lula is widely seen as friendly towards China at a time when the Trump administration wants to reduce Beijing's influence in the Americas. The result also matters for the Amazon: environmental groups had warned that a Bolsonaro win could bring back the looser policies they link to record deforestation under Jair Bolsonaro. And for democracy watchers, the next few weeks will show whether a losing candidate's refusal to concede stays a political statement or turns into a long legal fight.
How we checked this
We took the vote shares, vote totals, turnout and first-round figures from Reuters' report of the TSE count and checked the headline numbers against the BBC and AP. The details of the two-hour extension come from the Supreme Court's own news note on the decision, AP and DW, and the legal view on annulment comes from experts quoted by BBC News Brasil. Congress, economy and campaign-promise figures come from Reuters. Trend data was read directly from X's worldwide, US and UK trend lists, X post counts and Google Trends at 09:20 AST on 26 October. X's automated trend summaries were not used as a source for any fact.
FAQ
Who won the Brazil election 2026?
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won the runoff on 25 October with 51.79% of valid votes, beating Flávio Bolsonaro on 48.21%.
How many votes did Lula win by?
About 4.4 million. Lula received 64.26 million votes and Flávio Bolsonaro 59.82 million.
Has Flávio Bolsonaro conceded?
No. He says he will ask for the election to be annulled because voting was extended by two hours, although both campaigns had asked for more time. Legal experts say an annulment is very unlikely.
When does Lula's new term start?
On 5 January 2027. It is his fourth term, after 2003 to 2010 and the current term that began in 2023.
Why was voting extended in Brazil?
Justice Cristiano Zanin extended voting to 19:00 Brasília time after complaints about reduced bus services in Bahia and São Paulo, and about rain and flooding in the south.
Sources
- Reuters (via UOL): Lula wins historic fourth term with unprecedented comeback (Portuguese)
- BBC News: Lula wins in Brazil but faces hostile Congress and divided country
- BBC News live: Brazil election, Lula defeats Bolsonaro
- AP: Lula is declared winner of Brazil's election as Bolsonaro rejects results
- Supreme Federal Court (STF): voting extended to 19:00 where polls were still open (Portuguese)
- DW: Brazil elections, voting extended after transport complaints
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