Brazilians voted Sunday in a presidential runoff that pitted leftist incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva against Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, a far-right ally of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Bolsonaro, the son of imprisoned former President Jair Bolsonaro, bested Lula by more than 2.2 million votes in the first round of the election earlier this month. More than 33 million of the nearly 160 million registered voters did not turn out.
Brazilian Supreme Court
justice Cristiano Zanin ruled shortly after polls were closed that voters nationwide would have another two hours to cast their ballots — at both candidates' request. The extension threatened to cause logistical problems with some polls likely having closed before they got the order to stay open.
In Brasilia, volunteers who oversaw the vote count at a school debated whether they needed to stay after the announcement to extend voting, but most left 15 to 20 minutes after polls closed and they had given count information to electoral authorities. At a polling station in Rio de Janeiro, the voting machines had already been switched off minutes after polls were set to close and couldn’t be turned back on.
The difference between the two candidates is stark. Bolsonaro and Lula have opposing ideological views on issues ranging from U.S.-Brazil relations and climate change to social welfare. A win for Bolsonaro would signify a pivot to the right by Latin America’s most populous country and its largest economy in a year when Trump allies have notched victories in Chile, Peru and Colombia.
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Brazilian Supreme Court Cristiano Zanin ruled shortly after the polls closed that voters nationwide would have another two hours to cast their ballots — at the request of both candidates.
Confusion reigned at many polling stations. Some had already shut down when the decision — made three minutes before poll close time — was relayed to them several minutes after they’d already shut down, and results were paused until the end of the two-hour window.
In Brasilia, volunteers who oversaw the vote count at a school debated whether they needed to stay after the announcement to extend voting, but most left 15 to 20 minutes after polls closed and they had given count information to electoral authorities. At a polling station in Rio de Janeiro, the voting machines had already been switched off minutes after polls were set to close and couldn’t be turned back on.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro’s brother and a 42-year-old former lawmaker, spoke to supporters at a polling station in Miami, Florida. “What we really need is freedom,” Eduardo Bolsonaro said, as he called for judicial reform. “Most of the people here are coming to vote to free Jair Bolsonaro ... we need to reform the judiciary, we need to free the political prisoners.” Eduardo Bolsonaro was sentenced for lobbying to impose sanctions against members of the Brazilian government and implement higher tariffs on the country’s exports during the trial of his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, for a coup attempt. It is unclear whether Eduardo Bolsonaro cast a ballot. Pre-trial detainees can vote in elections, but those convicted with a final sentence cannot as their political rights are suspended. Eduardo Bolsonaro’s trial has been finalized and earlier this month, Moraes issued a warrant for his arrest. Eduardo Bolsonaro has lived in the U.S. since 2025 and experts say it is unlikely he will be extradited.
With minutes to go before poll closing time, both presidential candidates are asking Brazil’s electoral court to extend voting hours in some cities. The request from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva came after issues in nine states with buses that provide transportation to polls. Flávio Bolsonaro’s is due to heavy rains in the nation’s south. Polls were expected to close nationwide at 5 p.m.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Kássio Nunes, who also heads the country’s electoral court, told journalists in capital Brasilia that some cities are indeed experiencing bus shortages, but did not answer whether the voting hours will be extended. He did not address Bolsonaro’s request in his comments.
While leaving the White House on Sunday, President Donald Trump declined to endorse anyone in Brazil’s presidential election. “I don’t want to get into that,” he told reporters.
But the president added that his administration was tracking the race. “We are watching,” Trump said.
Brazilian newspapers are stressing that Sunday’s runoff between Lula and Bolsonaro will be a nail-biter, though Bolsonaro’s campaign is more optimistic after recent polls.
Folha de S.Paulo cited an analysis by its own pollster to say the election result is still open, but Lula will have to see his voters increase turnout to close the 2.2 million-vote gap between the two in the first round.
Rio de Janeiro-based O Globo, owned by Brazil’s biggest media company, reported that Bolsonaro, who was handpicked by his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, overcame initial fears in the right-wing camp that he would not be a competitive candidate because of recent corruption investigations involving him.
Brazil was sharply divided across its five main regions in the first round of the presidential election.
Flávio Bolsonaro won in three of the country’s five regions, but Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took the second most populous by wide margins. Bolsonaro won in the populous and rich Southeast, where Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais states lie. They will be the key battlegrounds in Sunday's runoff.
Bolsonaro, 45, carried the agribusiness hub of the country’s Center-West and easily won in the South, which borders Uruguay and Argentina. Lula erased much of Bolsonaro’s gains by winning in the Northeast and also triumphed in the North, the region that includes the Amazon rainforest.
Luzia da Souza, who runs a bar in a middle-class neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, is a longtime supporter of incumbent Lula and identified herself as "a Black woman from the periphery.”
“Black people’s lives greatly improved during Lula’s terms,” she said, and blamed Congress — which is largely right-wing — for the slow pace of reform.
“A president doesn’t govern on his own,” da Souza said. “But Lula is a man of the people and he knows what it’s like to be poor. I find it impossible not to vote for him.”
Anderson Falcão, a 43-year-old journalist in Brasilia who sported a red shirt in support of Lula, said he worried about Bolsonaro’s long-term political vision, which he called “exclusionary.”
“It’s a project that harms the less fortunate, harms the worker, women, the forest, the Amazon,” he said.
Brazil’s left was caught off guard when Flávio Bolsonaro bested incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva by over 2 million votes in Brazil’s first-round election.
Since then, it has made a clear bet on an unprecedented wave of digital activism and street protests to support Lula. The shift signals a turning point for the left, which has historically struggled to counter the far-right’s dominant online presence and savvy digital strategy.
Between the campaign’s launch on Aug. 16 and up to the first round, Lula and Bolsonaro had more or less the same number of interactions, according to data analytics company Bites. But since the beginning of the second round, the incumbent’s profiles received around 111 million interactions against Bolsonaro’s 31 million, it said.
Lula voted in the city of Sao Bernardo do Campo, where he began his political career as a union leader in the 1960s.
“I am thankful to the Brazilian people. What people did to me in recent days is something I cannot repay,” he said before casting his vote and holding Brazil’s flag in front of the cameras.
He said he was still emotional about Saturday’s demonstration of support from voters in São Paulo. “I don’t think Paulista Avenue had so many people in any political event.”
“It is a lot of generosity, a lot of care, a lot of love. I will be forever grateful,” Lula said.
First lady Rosângela da Silva, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and other allies accompanied Lula to the polling station.
Voting is mandatory for literate Brazilians aged 18 to 70. But that has never been a real consideration for nonvoters, who must either submit a formal justification online or at a polling station, or pay a small fine of less than $1.
More than 33 million people did not vote in the first round of the elections on Oct. 4. Some of those were hospitalized, living overseas or working outside their voting areas. And others just chose not to.
Unexcused absences in three consecutive elections freeze tax IDs, block nonvoters from applying to state jobs, hinders loans from state banks, and delays the issuance of passports. For those who don’t want to choose a candidate even when they show up, they can cast blank or null votes.
Fabianne Borges Santoro, a 45-year-old physiotherapist who lives in the neighborhood where Bolsonaro voted, said she voted for change.
“The Workers’ Party has been in power for a long time and the voice of the people is saying that we need change to see improvements in security and the cost of living,” she said, wearing a top featuring Brazil’s national colors, yellow and green. “Things are really expensive and taxes are too high.”
Santoro said she once voted for Lula’s party but now associates it with corruption, particularly after the so-called Operation Car Wash that started in 2014, when the Workers’ Party was in power and entangled dozens of politicians.
Roulen Azeredo, a 76-year-old army reservist, said he had always voted right. He also echoed the desire for a shift in the country’s direction.
“The current government did nothing,” said Azeredo, who hopes Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup, will be freed if the former president’s eldest son wins. “His imprisonment is a disgrace.”
Presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro voted at a local school in Rio de Janeiro just after 8 a.m., accompanied by his wife, Fernanda Bolsonaro. Wearing a light yellow shirt, he smiled and waved to supporters waiting to see him in the rain.
“The time of real change has arrived,” Bolsonaro told journalists. “Brazil can’t go on another four years on its current trajectory.”
As Bolsonaro voted, supporters of the opposition candidate shouted “Lula, thief, your place is in prison,” while fans of the incumbent responded with clapping and the chant “Olé olé olé ola, Lula!” The two anthems are common in demonstrations.
In Brazil, voting is fully electronic — meaning votes are counted much more quickly than in some other countries.
Polls opened at 8 a.m. and will close at 5 p.m. Brasilia time (2000 GMT) in most of the country.
On the ballot: the presidential face-off between Lula and Bolsonaro and six gubernatorial races. Votes are tallied quickly because each ballot box calculates results locally and prints a paper summary. The encrypted data is transmitted via secure networks to the nation’s top electoral court in capital Brasilia, which aggregates and publishes the counts within hours.
The system has been in place since the 1990s with few questioning its efficiency. One of its critics is former President Bolsonaro.
