Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has staged a remarkable political comeback, achieving an electoral feat unmatched by any presidential candidate in the country in nearly four decades.
The 80-year-old left-wing leader secured an unprecedented fourth non-consecutive presidential term on Sunday, overcoming a first-round defeat to right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of jailed former President Jair Bolsonaro, reports Al Jazeera.
Lula secured more than 51 per cent of the vote, against Bolsonaro’s 48 per cent, with electoral authorities declaring him the winner after counting 98.76 per cent of ballots.
The outcome remained uncertain until the final stages of voting, as opinion polls had placed the two candidates almost neck and neck in the run-up to the election.
A last-minute extension of voting hours triggered allegations of electoral interference and raised questions about possible legal challenges to the result.
Bolsonaro has already vowed to seek the annulment of the election, arguing that the extension confused voters.
Here are five key takeaways from the election.
Lula makes history with unprecedented fourth term
Lula’s prospects appeared uncertain only three weeks before the run-off.
On 4 October, Bolsonaro unexpectedly outperformed the incumbent in the first round, securing 47.03 per cent of the vote against Lula’s 45.16 per cent. The difference between the two candidates stood at 2.2 million votes.
Over the following three weeks, Lula sought to win back voters who had abstained in the first round and appeal to those worried about the cost of living and the future of his flagship social welfare programmes.
Opinion polls showed the candidates virtually tied in the final days of the campaign.
Bolsonaro briefly moved ahead as officials counted ballots on Sunday evening. However, Lula regained the lead as votes from the northeastern region began coming in, Reuters reported.
The northeast has traditionally provided strong electoral support for Lula and his Workers’ Party. Bolsonaro, meanwhile, enjoys substantial backing in the southern and southeastern regions, as well as the centre-west.
Lula’s victory secures him a historic fourth presidential term, while Bolsonaro’s defeat ends his immediate bid to return his family to the presidency.
No other candidate in modern Brazilian history has finished second in the first round of a presidential election and subsequently won the run-off.
At 80, Lula is also poised to surpass his own record as the oldest Brazilian president to take office since the country returned to democracy.
Last-minute voting extension creates confusion
As Brazil’s presidential run-off approached its scheduled close on Sunday, both campaigns called for additional voting time.
Lula’s campaign alleged that local authorities had deliberately reduced public transport services in several cities, preventing lower-income voters from reaching polling stations easily.
Bolsonaro’s camp, meanwhile, sought an extension for voters in areas affected by heavy rain and flooding.
In Minas Gerais, the regional electoral court reported power outages at 349 polling locations. However, local media reported that voting machines continued to operate using backup batteries.
Voting had originally been scheduled to end at 5pm Brasilia time (20:00 GMT).
Responding to petitions from both campaigns, Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin ordered polling stations to remain open for an additional two hours, until 7pm (22:00 GMT).
The order came after some polling stations had already closed and switched off their electronic voting machines.
Zanin subsequently clarified that stations which had already closed would remain shut, while those still operating could continue accepting voters until 7pm.
The decision caused confusion, with some voters reportedly turned away despite the extension.
In a brief address after the election, Bolsonaro cited the confusion as grounds for annulling the vote and accused Zanin of judicial malfeasance.
“He changes the rules of the game mid-game,” Bolsonaro said.
Interference allegations could trigger legal battles
Brazil’s Federal Police are investigating alleged disruptions to election-related transport services in five states.
In Salvador, a court ordered the arrest of the city’s transport secretary over allegations that he had instructed officials to cut bus services. Lula’s camp cited such incidents as evidence of interference in the election.
Bolsonaro levelled similar accusations against Zanin, highlighting the justice’s previous role as Lula’s personal lawyer. Lula appointed Zanin to the Supreme Court in 2023.
“It is impossible to recognise the results of the election,” Bolsonaro told supporters, describing the circumstances as “unacceptable”.
He is expected to challenge the result in court in an attempt to overturn his defeat. Several prominent figures on the global political right have already expressed support for his position.
Donald Trump Jr, son of US President Donald Trump, criticised the decision to extend voting hours.
“If a conservative government in Brazil did this, everyone in the mainstream press in America would lose their minds, but I guess they’re just choosing to be silent because it’s all for the cause,” Trump Jr posted on social media.
The Trump administration has supported the Bolsonaro family and echoed its claims that Jair Bolsonaro faced a political “witch-hunt” in the courts.
Flávio Bolsonaro has called for reforms to Brazil’s judicial system following his father’s legal troubles. Earlier this month, he said that, if elected, he would seek constitutional changes to “re-democratise” the country.
Al Jazeera correspondent Monica Yanakiew said tensions between Brazil’s political right and the judiciary were likely to persist following Sunday’s result.
“The judicial system itself is very divided,” Yanakiew said, pointing to divisions within the Supreme Court. “There will need to be a lot of political negotiation.”
Higher turnout may have contributed to Lula’s victory
Higher-than-expected voter turnout may have helped Lula secure his victory, according to Andrei Roman, head of polling firm AtlasIntel, who identified a decline in abstention as a possible factor behind the result.
An estimated 33.4 million Brazilians did not vote in the October 4 first round, despite compulsory voting rules applying to most adults. The figure represented about 21% of the electorate and marked the highest abstention rate in a general election since 1998.
The extent to which those voters influenced the run-off remains unclear. However, with the candidates separated by more than 2.2 million votes in the first round, even a relatively modest shift in turnout could have affected the final outcome.
Final participation figures, particularly in areas where each candidate enjoys strong support, could help explain Lula’s turnaround.
During the final weeks of the campaign, Lula also made targeted appeals to energise his working-class supporters. One of his pledges was to pursue free public transport on weekends.
Lula’s win complicates Trump’s Latin American ambitions
Lula’s victory comes as right-wing candidates have made electoral gains across Latin America, a region where Trump has sought to expand Washington’s influence.
The Bolsonaro family has long enjoyed the US president’s backing. Reuters reported on Saturday that officials in Trump’s State Department had pushed for sanctions against Brazil as part of efforts to weaken Lula and help the Bolsonaro family regain power.
Asked on Sunday which candidate he wanted to win, Trump declined to endorse either contender.
“I don’t want to get into that, but we are watching,” he told reporters.
Although Trump has openly supported other right-wing candidates across Latin America, he maintained a relatively cautious public stance on Brazil’s election. Critics have speculated that his restraint was deliberate.
Bolsonaro had promised to strengthen ties with the United States. Lula, by contrast, made the defence of Brazil’s sovereignty and opposition to foreign interference central themes of his campaign.
He repeatedly cited Trump’s aggressive tariff policies and public comments about Jair Bolsonaro’s trial as examples of outside interference. Lula’s government has also clashed with US-based social media companies, prompting Trump to accuse it of censorship.
In his victory speech, Lula said he had to “overcome interference coming from the outside” to secure his fourth term.
“The election was a defeat for denialism,” Lula said on Sunday night. “It was a defeat for lies.”
He concluded by praising his supporters, whom he described as his “army”.
“I highly doubt that Russia, China, or the United States possess an army as victorious as the army of democracy in this country,” Lula said, thanking voters.
