Lula wins a fourth term in Brazil; Flávio Bolsonaro refuses to concede
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Sunday’s presidential runoff with 51.79% of the vote to Flávio Bolsonaro’s 48.21%, Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court announced, the BBC and The Guardian reported. Bolsonaro, who won the first round, has not conceded and says he will seek to annul the result.
The count: With all votes counted, Lula had 64,256,232 votes and Bolsonaro 59,826,041, according to the official results published by The Guardian. It is Lula’s fourth win in a presidential election, the BBC reported. He served from 2003 to 2010 and again from 2023, and his new term is set to begin on January 5, 2027.
A comeback: Bolsonaro beat Lula in the first round on October 4, the BBC reported. The Guardian noted that a first-round runner-up had never before gone on to win a runoff since Brazil’s return to democracy. Bolsonaro is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a prison sentence for plotting a failed coup after losing the 2022 election, The Guardian reported.
The challenge: Bolsonaro called the result “inexplicable” and said he would seek its annulment, citing a two-hour extension of voting, the BBC reported. Both campaigns had asked for polling stations to stay open longer, according to the BBC. Bolsonaro also called the Supreme Court ruling that extended voting “unacceptable,” CNBC reported, citing Reuters.
What comes next: Lula will govern alongside the most right-wing Congress of Brazil’s democratic era, with Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party making the biggest gains in the election, the BBC reported. Markets reacted quickly: an exchange-traded fund that tracks Brazilian stocks fell sharply in overnight trading, CNBC reported.