Overview
- Brazil’s electoral court certified Lula’s victory, showing roughly 51.75% of valid votes to Flávio Bolsonaro’s 48.25% in the runoff that concluded on Sunday, Oct. 25.
- The result overturned a first-round deficit after Lula’s campaign mobilised young and previously absent voters and reportedly added about 10 million net votes between rounds.
- A last-minute Supreme Court order extended voting by two hours because of transport and weather problems, a move that delayed counts and has become a central point in Bolsonaro’s calls to annul the result.
- Flávio Bolsonaro has refused to concede and has sought legal challenges, but experts say his case is weakened by the fact his campaign also requested the voting extension.
- Lula will take office with a hostile, conservative-dominated Congress that could block his agenda, constrain judicial appointments, and shape how his promises on welfare, crime and the Amazon are implemented.