Raquel Lyra Re‑elected Governor of Pernambuco in First Round

Overview

• Raquel Lyra won re‑election on Sunday with about 53.2% of valid votes versus João Campos’s roughly 44.8% after nearly all ballots were counted.
• The campaign was intensely polarized and featured personal attacks and apocryphal pamphlets that referenced the 2022 death of Lyra’s husband and were widely circulated during the race.
• Electoral authorities intervened during the contest by ordering removals, temporarily suspending a journalist’s social profile, and asking the Federal Police to obtain metadata from the Bastidor.PE portal.
• João Campos’s team said they submitted photos and videos of alleged irregularities to the Electoral Justice and his loss was framed as a setback for his regional and national trajectory.
• The alleged ‘digital militia’ case has been moved from the Supreme Court to the Superior Court of Justice and multiple investigations remain open, leaving legal questions that could affect media source protection and post‑election politics.