Overview
- The electoral court declared Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva the winner after vote counting on Sunday night, Oct. 25, with about 51.8% of the vote versus Flávio Bolsonaro's 48.2%, a margin of roughly 4.4 million votes.
- Flávio Bolsonaro immediately refused to recognise the result and announced plans to seek annulment, centring his complaint on a Supreme Court judge's last‑minute two‑hour extension of voting hours.
- The judge ordered the extension after the Lula campaign said voters had been blocked from reaching polling stations because buses were removed and heavy rains hit some areas, and counting continued into the night as officials certified results.
- Lula's ability to act on campaign promises will be limited by a conservative‑leaning Congress elected on Oct. 4, and he faces pressing economic and security challenges that will force negotiation with centrist and rightwing parties.
- The campaign featured technical outages, AI‑manipulated content on platforms and media reports alleging foreign influence, and Lula has pledged to regulate social media and artificial intelligence in response to those problems.