President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil’s presidential runoff on Sunday, October 25, 2026, beating right-wing senator Flávio Bolsonaro to secure a fourth term.
With 99.81% of votes counted, Lula had 51.76% of the vote to Bolsonaro’s 48.24%, and Brazil’s electoral authority declared him re-elected. The result was an upset: Bolsonaro, the son of imprisoned former president Jair Bolsonaro, had won the first round on October 4, and no candidate since democracy was restored in 1988 had won a runoff after losing the first round. Lula, who is 80, previously served as president from January 2003 to December 2010 and again from January 2023. Voting was extended by two hours at some polling stations after both campaigns complained about disruptions from public transport problems and bad weather. The win also runs against a wider regional trend, since Argentina, Chile and Colombia all now have conservative leaders.
Image: Official portrait of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Ricardo Stuckert/PR, Palácio do Planalto, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.