ع
Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court declared incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva the winner of the October 25 2026 runoff with 51.79 percent of the vote against Flávio Bolsonaro’s 48.21 percent a margin of more than four million ballots. Lula had finished second in the first round on October 4 trailing Bolsonaro by roughly 2.2 million votes or two percentage points. The result marks the first time since Brazil returned to democracy in 1985 that a candidate who lost the opening round went on to win the presidency Reuters reported. A CNN analysis found Lula gained more than 10 million additional votes between rounds while Bolsonaro added only 3.6 million.
Lula’s campaign intensified after the first-round setback through street demonstrations a strengthened social media effort and a sharpened focus on economic issues that resonated with his base according to multiple outlets including the BBC. The president who turns 81 on October 27 signed a 15 percent increase in payments under the Bolsa Família welfare program which benefits nearly 50 million people Folha de S.Paulo noted in its coverage. He also backed debt renegotiation for households endorsed a shorter work week without salary reduction and proposed free public transport on weekends. Higher turnout helped drive the comeback as abstention dropped from 21.08 percent in the first round to about 19.2 percent adding nearly three million voters a Reuters tally showed.
Geography played a key role in the reversal with Lula flipping the key state of Minas Gerais from a nearly 590000-vote deficit to a 99000-vote win for a net swing of around 690000 ballots CNN data indicated. He strengthened his performance across the northeast carried the capitals of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and reversed the first-round outcome in the city of Rio itself. The victory bucks a regional pattern in which voters in countries such as Argentina Chile and Colombia have shifted toward conservative leaders aligned with U.S. President Donald Trump according to a BBC assessment of Latin American trends.
Flávio Bolsonaro the eldest son of imprisoned former President Jair Bolsonaro has refused to concede and announced plans to challenge the result in court citing the Supreme Court’s decision to extend polling by two hours on election day. Both campaigns had requested the extension amid heavy rain in parts of the south and reports of transport issues affecting voters in poorer areas. Jair Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after his own 2022 defeat to Lula Al Jazeera reporting confirmed. The younger Bolsonaro’s loss represents the second consecutive presidential election setback for the family.
Lula who previously served as president from 2003 to 2010 and began a third term in 2023 now faces a divided Congress with a strengthened right-wing bloc in the Senate that could complicate his agenda. His late-campaign pledges included measures already moving through Congress such as the labor reform guaranteeing two days off per week without pay cuts. A Livemint compilation of election factors highlighted how Lula shifted emphasis from external interference warnings to concrete promises on welfare and cost-of-living relief. The electoral court affirmed the outcome after nearly all ballots were counted leaving little room for successful legal challenges analysts told Reuters.
