Brazil’s incumbent president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won the October 25 runoff and secured a fourth term. His rival, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, did not accept the result and announced a motion to annul the vote.
According to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Lula received about 51.76 percent of valid votes, while Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party received about 48.24 percent. As reported by the Anadolu agency, the margin exceeded 4 million votes. The portal Liga.net, citing the TSE’s final data, says Lula received 64.26 million votes and Bolsonaro 59.83 million. Turnout was about 80.8 percent.
Overturning the first-round deficit
In the first round on October 4, Bolsonaro led (47.03 to 45.16 percent, according to the Washington Blade). According to France 24 and Anadolu, it is the first time since Brazil’s return to democracy that a candidate who lost the first round has won the runoff. Lula will serve a fourth term, though not a consecutive one. According to the Latin Times, Bolsonaro led the count until roughly the halfway point of polling stations, and votes from the country’s northeast decided the outcome. France 24 writes that the number of non-voters fell by about 3 million in the runoff compared with the first round.
Bolsonaro: the election cannot be recognised
After the results were announced, Flávio Bolsonaro appeared in Brasília and stated that the result cannot be accepted. The TASS agency quotes him saying the election „must be annulled” and that recognising such an outcome is „impossible”. The politician also referred to the court’s decision to extend voting by two hours. According to France 24 and the Washington Blade, the Supreme Court made this decision after Lula’s campaign filed a complaint about transport problems for voters in the state of Bahia. Bolsonaro said that for the first time in history, the rules of the electoral process had been changed „with a stroke of a pen”.
At the time of publication, there was no information on whether the motion to annul the election had already reached the TSE or how the court had responded.
Political background
Flávio Bolsonaro is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. As France 24 notes, Lula’s victory halts a series of right-wing successes in Latin America. It is also, in political terms, a defeat for the candidate backed by the Trump family: according to the broadcaster, the US president supported the Bolsonaro family.
What it means
For Brazil, this means the continuation of left-wing government, but amid a dispute over the legitimacy of the result. The election court will consider the motion to annul; the outcome will depend on whether Bolsonaro files a formal lawsuit and whether his camp calls supporters to protest. For readers in Poland, this is mainly news about the balance of power in the region’s largest economy, which matters, among other things, for EU trade with Mercosur. The result does not directly affect Polish citizens or prices in Poland.
