Lula wins Brazil presidency with 51.79% of vote

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva secured a fourth term as president of Brazil on Sunday after capturing 51.79% of the vote in the final round. His right-wing opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro, finished with 48.21% of the total. The margin between the two candidates stood at 4.4 million votes.

The election concluded with a two-hour extension of voting hours that was announced by the Supreme Court just before polling stations were scheduled to close. Lula’s campaign requested the extension because a shortage of buses in São Paulo and Bahia prevented some voters from reaching their stations. The Bolsonaro camp asked for the extension due to heavy rainfall in parts of southern Brazil and São Paulo. Some locations that had already shut down could not reopen for the additional time.

Kassio Nunes Marques, the president of the Supreme Court, confirmed the result. He stated that the extension did not create problems for the vote count or the electoral process. Marques noted that Lula had become the first president since the return of civilian rule in 1985 to win an election after losing the first round.

Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of convicted former president Jair Bolsonaro, has not yet accepted the outcome. He called the result inexplicable and impossible and requested that it be annulled. Legal experts described the chance of the vote being overturned as remote. Fernando Neisser of the Institute of Lawyers of São Paulo said the large margin made a legal challenge difficult. Alberto Rollo added that the fixed constitutional dates for presidential elections complicate any effort to cancel the result.

Lula addressed supporters in the streets of São Paulo after the win. He described the election as a loss for negativity and lies. He said his new term would be the best in the country’s history and the one in which he would listen most to the Brazilian people. Vice President Geraldo Alckmin told him that he had saved Brazilian democracy for the second time.

The new term is set to begin on 5 January and will last until 2030. Lula turns 81 on Tuesday. He previously served two non-consecutive terms from 2003 to 2010 and began his third term in January 2023. His victory bucks a recent trend in Latin America where voters in Argentina, Chile, and Colombia have elected right-wing leaders. World leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sent congratulatory messages following the result.