After first-round defeat, Lula stages dramatic comeback to beat Bolsonaro in Brazilian presidential election

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has staged a dramatic comeback to defeat his far-right rival Flavio Bolsonaro and secure a historic fourth term.

With 100 per cent of votes counted, Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court said the 80-year-old leftist won 51.79 per cent to 48.21 per cent – a lead of almost 4.4 million votes.

It is the first time since the return of democracy in the 1980s that the runner-up in the first round has gone on to win the second round.

Lula, who turns 81 on Tuesday, had narrowly lost the first round on 4 October to Bolsonaro, casting his political future into doubt.

Allies said their best chance was to improve turnout. After a record abstention rate of 21.08 per cent in the first round – which disproportionately affected Lula voters who tend to live further from polling stations – the rate fell to 19.21 per cent in the run-off, following street demonstrations and a major social media push.

Within minutes of the result being confirmed, Bolsonaro refused to concede and said he will seek to have the election annulled.

Speaking to supporters in Brasilia, the 45-year-old senator said it was “impossible to concede the election result” and that his legal team would file for annulment.

He cited a decision by Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin to extend voting by two hours to 7 pm.

The ruling came three minutes before polls were due to close at 5 pm, after both campaigns had requested an extension.

Lula’s team cited problems with buses providing transport to polling stations in Sao Paulo and Salvador, which lean towards the incumbent, while Bolsonaro’s team cited heavy rain in the south, where he is favoured.

Bolsonaro, who did not mention that his own campaign had also asked for extra time, called the decision “not normal” and “unacceptable” and said it amounted to “changing the rules of the game while the game was being played”. He also noted that Justice Zanin is Lula’s former lawyer.

He was following in the footsteps of his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who refused to accept defeat to Lula in 2022 before attempting a coup and being convicted. Jair Bolsonaro is now serving a 27-year prison sentence.

The president of the electoral court, Kassio Nunes Marques, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by Jair Bolsonaro, said the extension did not affect the result.

The victory bucks a wider trend in Latin America, where voters have punished incumbents and turned to the right. Argentina, Chile and Colombia now have conservative leaders.

Brazil, an oil-rich country with the world’s second-largest reserves of rare earth minerals and a GDP of $2.6 trillion, is the only large economy in South America not governed by the right.

Lula, a vocal critic of US President Donald Trump, had warned Washington not to interfere in the election, saying Brazil would “never fit into anyone’s backyard”.

Bolsonaro had promised to align Brazil more closely with Washington. Trump did not directly endorse Flavio Bolsonaro, as he did right-wing candidates who went on to win in Colombia and Honduras.

However, the White House regards Latin America as an area of US influence and is keen to reduce China’s presence. Lula is largely seen as China-friendly.

Environmentalists welcomed the result. They had feared that a win for Bolsonaro would strengthen the agribusiness and mining sectors, pointing to record deforestation and forest fires in the Amazon during his father’s presidency.

It will be Lula’s fourth term, having served from January 2003 to December 2010 and again since January 2023.

The former metalworker, who helped found the Workers’ Party, was jailed in 2018 on corruption convictions that were later annulled after 580 days in prison. He narrowly beat Jair Bolsonaro in 2022.