Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court proclaimed Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva the winner of Sunday’s presidential runoff on Sunday night, handing the 80-year-old Workers’ Party leader a fourth nonconsecutive term and a comeback victory over right-wing senator Flávio Bolsonaro after trailing in the first round.
What the court announced
TSE President Kassio Nunes Marques said the count had reached a mathematical conclusion with more than 64 million nominal votes for Lula, or about 51.74 percent of valid ballots. Flávio Bolsonaro, son of imprisoned former president Jair Bolsonaro, took roughly 48.26 percent—a margin of about 4.4 million votes, according to the court and wire tallies.
Marques, appointed to the Supreme Court by the elder Bolsonaro, told the country he had “absolute security” in the process and telephoned both campaigns after the result. Lula’s next term is scheduled to begin on 5 January 2027 and run through 2030, making him the first Brazilian president to secure four terms and the first since the 1988 constitution’s return to democracy to win a runoff after placing second in the first round on 4 October.
A chaotic close to voting
The runoff’s final hours were marked by a Supreme Federal Court order extending voting by two hours after transport disruptions and heavy rain in parts of the country. Both camps had sought more time for different reasons, and some stations that had already closed could not reopen—an episode Flávio Bolsonaro’s team cited in calling for annulment.
Marques said the extension did not compromise the tally. Lula told supporters the result was a rebuke to “negativity and lies,” while Flávio Bolsonaro refused to recognize the outcome and urged supporters to contest it—moves legal analysts quoted by Brazilian and international outlets described as unlikely to overturn certified returns.
What comes next
The verdict halts, for now, a regional right-wing surge that had lifted Flávio Bolsonaro after he led the October first round with about 47 percent to Lula’s 45 percent. Investors and diplomats will watch whether the defeated camp escalates street pressure or accepts the court’s certification as the transition clock starts.
Lula, who turns 81 on Tuesday, already governed from 2003 to 2010 and returned to office in 2023. His new mandate arrives with strained ties to U.S. President Donald Trump and a polarized legislature, but Sunday’s numbers give him a narrow popular mandate to claim the runoff was settled at the ballot box—not in the courts.