World

Brazil Votes in Presidential Runoff Between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro as Count Begins

Elena MarquezPublished 4m ago3 min readBased on 13 sources
Brazil Votes in Presidential Runoff Between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro as Count Begins
Photo by Palácio do Planalto from Brasilia, Brasil / CC BY 2.0

Brazilians voted on Sunday, 25 October, in a presidential runoff between the incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Flávio Bolsonaro, and the full vote count is now underway.

Polling stations were originally due to close at 17:00 Brasília time, which is 20:00 GMT. Voting was extended by two hours. Nearly 159 million people were eligible to vote, according to The Guardian.

Early figures have been reported. Reuters reported an early count with Lula on 57.66% and Flávio Bolsonaro on 42.34%. A separate Reuters results tally showed Lula at 51.3%, with 1,868,470 votes, against 48.7% and 1,771,900 votes for Flávio Bolsonaro, a lead of 2.7 points. The Guardian's live coverage reported Flávio Bolsonaro narrowly ahead, 45% to 44%.

The runoff exists because no candidate won more than half of the votes in the first round, held on 4 October. In that round, Flávio Bolsonaro received 56,104,268 votes, or 47.03% of valid votes, and Lula received 53,876,617, or 45.16%, according to Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE). Other candidates together received 7.8% of the vote. Brazil elects its president by direct popular vote, needing more than 50% of the votes cast, with no electoral college standing between voters and the result.

Both men have a long political history in the contest. Lula served as president from 2003 to 2010 and returned to the office in 2023. Flávio Bolsonaro is the son of Jair Bolsonaro, the former president, who is serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a failed coup attempt after losing to Lula in the 2022 election. Lula received 3.8 million fewer votes than he did in 2022, when he ran against Jair Bolsonaro, according to The Guardian.

Both candidates drew large crowds to final campaign rallies on Saturday in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Belo Horizonte.

The campaign has also included legal action. Flávio Bolsonaro filed a case before the TSE seeking the cassation, meaning the revocation, of the candidate registration or diploma of Lula and Alckmin, and a declaration that those responsible are ineligible to hold office, according to the TSE.

Related Articles