Brazils Lula Wins Reelection, Bolsonaro to Request Election Annulment

Progressive President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won reelection in Brazil’s presidential runoff, defeating conservative Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro, the country’s electoral authority said on Sunday. Bolsonaro said late Sunday that he would call for the election results to be annulled over last-minute rule changes.With 100 percent of the vote counted, Brazil’s electoral court announced that Lula won 51.8 percent of the total vote, with a lead of nearly 4.4 million votes over rival Bolsonaro.Bolsonaro said he would challenge the result and seek to have it annulled. He said Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin’s decision to extend voting by two hours nationwide was unacceptable and that the rules had been changed late in the election process.Lula had requested an extension after reports of issues with buses transporting voters to polling stations in Sao Paulo and Salvador, two cities that tend to favor the incumbent. Bolsonaro’s team also sought a local extension due to heavy rains in some regions that hindered voters from reaching polling stations.In Brasilia, volunteers who oversaw the vote count at a school debated whether they needed to stay after the announcement to extend voting, but most left 15 to 20 minutes after polls closed and they had given count information to electoral authorities. At a polling station in Rio de Janeiro, the voting machines had already been switched off minutes after polls were set to close and couldn’t be turned back on.The decision delayed tallying the votes by two hours. It was unclear how many polling stations stayed open after the scheduled closing time, with Bolsonaro saying there was unequal treatment of polling stations.“There was a complete breakdown of equal treatment among Brazilians in different cities and states,” he said. “I will never know how many votes I might have received in cities where the polling stations were not reopened. What occurred is inexplicable.”Bolsonaro also alleged that his party’s poll watchers were removed from the Superior Electoral Court’s secure counting room as soon as the decision was made.Bolsonaro ally Nikolas Ferreira noted that Zanin, who made the decision, is Lula’s former lawyer.World Leaders React to Lula’s ReelectionSeveral world leaders congratulated Lula on his reelection, with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez hailing it as a “historic victory.”“Brazil can count on Cuba in the construction of the unity and integration of our Great Homeland, Latin American and Caribbean,” Bermudez said in a post on X.Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney also congratulated Lula, noting that Brazil’s relationship with Canada had flourished under his leadership.“Let’s seize this opportunity to make it even stronger, together—to create major new trade opportunities, protect the environment, and build greater prosperity for both our peoples,” he wrote on X.Chilean President José Antonio Kast said in a post on X that he spoke with Lula following the election result.He pledged that Chile would work with Brazil on “an agenda that strengthens relations between our countries in economic integration and the fight against organized crime in the region.”Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum congratulated Lula on X, saying: “Long live democracy, the people of Brazil won.”Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa Azin extended his congratulations to Lula, saying their countries faced “common enemies, shared challenges, and much to gain” when working together.Bolsonaro, son of imprisoned former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, led the first round of elections three weeks ago, with 47 percent of the vote to Lula’s 45 percent. Polls showed the candidates essentially tied heading into the runoff, with Lula seeking a fourth term.Brazil’s right-wing senator and presidential candidate for the Liberal Party (PL) Flavio Bolsonaro reacts after knowing the first results in the presidential runoff election, in Brasilia, on Oct. 25, 2026. Pablo Porciuncula/AFP via Getty ImagesThe Epoch Times spoke to some voters about their views on the election. Edsel Almeida, a voter from Sau Paulo, said people were hopeful for improvements in the country and that he had expected Bolsonaro to bring change.“We are waiting to see what these new developments will bring,” he said.Vanessa Lima, a service industry worker from Rio de Janeiro, said she was hopeful that Brazil would make progress under Lula’s leadership.Mariana Silva, a law student from Oliveira, Minas Gerais, said that Lula had introduced good initiatives while he was a federal representative, but that their implementation had largely stalled.“As a representative, Lula has a political history that includes initiatives that were very helpful to many people,” Silva said. “However, the current situation is, for all practical purposes, at a standstill.”The Brazilian election cycle has been filled with concerns about close ties between the Trump administration and Bolsonaro during the presidential campaign.U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Bolsonaro at the White House in May and praised him in a June 2 Truth Social post as a “smart young man who loves his Country, Brazil, very much!”Lula’s government denied visas in July to two U.S. State Department officials. A Brazilian official told Reuters that the government suspected that the visit was intended to influence the election and undermine confidence in its voting system.The U.S. State Department rejected that allegation, saying the State Department officials had planned routine meetings on election integrity, religious freedom, and freedom of expression.Accusations of Election InterferenceThirty House Democrats, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), have urged U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to explain the Trump administration’s actions toward Brazil, accusing it of undermining the country’s democratic institutions ahead of its presidential election.In a Sept. 24 letter to Rubio, the lawmakers said tariffs, sanctions, and diplomatic pressure threatened relations with a strategic U.S. partner.The Trump administration has accused Lula’s government of unfair trade practices and imposed tariffs on the country.The U.S. Trade Representative conducted a year-long investigation that determined that certain Brazilian actions and trade policies regarding the United States were “unreasonable and burden or restrict the commerce of American farmers, workers, innovators, and exporters.”In their letter, the lawmakers asked whether the administration would respect Brazil’s electoral process, recognize the certified election results, and maintain diplomatic relations with the winner.They argued that U.S. actions risked weakening confidence in democratic institutions across Latin America.Three more Democrats in the Senate echoed these statements, accusing the Trump administration of interfering in Brazil’s presidential election and that its use of diplomatic pressure over the Brazilian Supreme Court’s decision in the trial of Jair Bolsonaro signaled “an overt ideological commitment to undermining Brazil’s democratic institutions and advancing the interests of the Brazilian far-right.”In a Sept. 28 letter to Rubio, Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) asked whether Washington would recognize the certified election results and maintain normal diplomatic relations with whichever candidate Brazilian voters chose.Paul Rowan Brian, The Associated Press, and Reuters contributed to this report.