Lula Wins Brazil Runoff; Flávio Bolsonaro Refuses to Concede

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been reelected president of Brazil. Brazil's electoral authority, known as the TSE, said on Sunday, October 25, 2026, that he had won the presidential runoff.

The margin was nearly 4.4 million votes over his rival, Flávio Bolsonaro, according to Associated Press. Bolsonaro received 59,826,041 votes, or 48.21 percent, in the runoff, the TSE reported.

Bolsonaro did not concede. He said he will seek annulment of the presidential vote, according to Reuters. A request for annulment is a formal challenge asking that the result be thrown out. Bolsonaro is a right-wing senator. It has not been decided.

The runoff was the final round of a two-stage contest. Both candidates advanced from the first round, held on October 4, 2026. In that vote, Bolsonaro won 56,104,268 votes, or 47.03 percent of valid votes, and Lula won 53,876,617, or 45.16 percent, according to the TSE's earlier report on the first round.

Lula was the incumbent president during the runoff. Reuters reported that his victory gives him a fourth term as president, a term that is not consecutive with his earlier ones. Reuters also covered reactions from abroad to the result.

Brazil's presidential runoff has no minimum vote threshold, a rule that matters for how the result is counted.