Politics & Diplomacy
Lula wins a fourth term in Brazil with 51.79% as Flávio Bolsonaro refuses to recognise the result
Lula took 51.79 percent of valid votes in the 25 October runoff, according to Brazil's state news agency, while Flávio Bolsonaro said he will ask for the election to be annulled.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won a fourth, non-consecutive term as president of Brazil, but his opponent, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, says he will not accept the outcome and will ask the courts to annul the vote. The runoff was held on Sunday, 25 October 2026.
According to Agência Brasil, the state news agency, Lula of the Workers’ Party took 51.79 percent of the valid votes, or 64,256,232 ballots, against 48.21 percent, or 59,826,041 votes, for Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party. Al Jazeera reported that officials declared the result with 98.76 percent of ballots counted, and put Lula, who is 80, at just over 51 percent to Bolsonaro’s 48 percent. France 24 cited official results of 51.7 and 48.2 percent.
A comeback after losing the first round
Bolsonaro had led the first round on 4 October with 47.03 percent to Lula’s 45.16 percent, a gap of about 2.2 million votes, according to Al Jazeera. France 24 described Lula as the first candidate since Brazil’s return to democracy in the 1980s to win a presidential runoff after finishing second in the first round. About 33.4 million eligible voters, roughly 21 percent of the electorate, did not vote in the first round, which Al Jazeera called the highest abstention rate in a general election since 1998.
Speaking in São Paulo after the result, Lula said people voted because they had been convinced it was important to preserve democracy, according to France 24 and Ukrinform. On social media companies he said, in France 24’s translation, “We are going to have to regulate them.” His campaign had accused Meta of interfering in the election. Meta denied favouring Bolsonaro, but acknowledged that some Lula campaign ads were mistakenly deactivated, France 24 reported.
Bolsonaro refuses to concede
Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, did not concede. “It is impossible to recognise the results,” he said, adding that he would request the annulment of the election, according to Al Jazeera and France 24.
His complaint centres on a ruling by Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin, who extended voting by two hours, to 7pm Brasília time, only for polling stations that were still open. Some stations had already closed, which caused confusion on the day. France 24 reported that Lula had asked for more time because buses taking voters to polling stations had been pulled from circulation, while Bolsonaro had also requested an extension in some regions because of heavy rain. Bolsonaro called the decision “unacceptable.”
Lula’s camp, for its part, pointed to reduced transport services in several cities as interference. Al Jazeera said the Federal Police are investigating disruptions in five states, and that a court in Salvador ordered the arrest of the city’s transport secretary over alleged bus service cuts.
A divided Congress and international reaction
France 24 reported that Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party and its allies could control more than 280 seats in the lower house and up to 50 in the Senate, so Lula will face a strong opposition. The outlet quoted the government’s forecast of 2.3 percent growth next year and noted that public debt is above 82 percent of GDP.
Congratulations came from across the world, Al Jazeera reported. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum wrote “Long live democracy, the people of Brazil won.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said democracy and multilateralism had won and promised continued cooperation on trade and climate, while French President Emmanuel Macron called for a stronger strategic partnership. China’s foreign ministry and the Kremlin, whose spokesman Dmitry Peskov highlighted Lula’s work on bilateral ties and BRICS, also welcomed the result.
In the United States, Donald Trump Jr. criticised the voting extension, while Democratic figures including Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressman Ro Khanna congratulated Lula. The Al Jazeera roundup carried no reaction from President Donald Trump.
Whether Bolsonaro’s court challenge can meet the legal threshold for annulling the result has not been established in the sources read.
