President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won a fourth term on Sunday, beating Senator Flávio Bolsonaro in a runoff that a last-minute court order kept open two hours longer than planned.
Brazil’s electoral court declared Mr. Lula the winner Sunday night. He took 51.78 percent of the vote to Mr. Bolsonaro’s 48.22 percent, according to the official count reported by France 24. That reversed the Oct. 4 first round, in which Mr. Bolsonaro led 47 percent to 45 percent, a gap of more than 2.2 million votes. Before the runoff, Reuters reported that no candidate had ever won the presidency after finishing second in the first round.
Mr. Bolsonaro was ahead early in the count, at 50.3 percent to 49.7 percent with about 37 percent of ballots tallied. By late Sunday, neither man had spoken to supporters, The Associated Press reported.
The fight over the clock could outlast the count. As polls were closing, Justice Cristiano Zanin of the Supreme Court extended voting nationwide by two hours. Both campaigns had asked the electoral court for more time in some cities: Mr. Lula because of bus problems in nine states, Mr. Bolsonaro because of heavy rain in the south. The ruling came three minutes before closing time. Some polling stations heard about it only after they had shut, and results were held back until the extra two hours ran out.
Edinho Silva, the chairman of Mr. Lula’s Workers’ Party, said earlier in the evening that the party was looking into legal action over “interference in the electoral process.” Nikolas Ferreira, a Bolsonaro ally, said the decision by Justice Zanin, who once worked as Mr. Lula’s lawyer, was an attempt to contest a likely Bolsonaro victory. The Bolsonaro campaign hadn’t commented.
Most of the trouble was over buses. In Bahia, a northeastern state where Mr. Lula won 65 percent in the first round, at least 75 public buses were kept in municipal garages on Sunday, according to a state electoral judge, who ordered the arrest of Pablo Souza, the mobility secretary of the state capital, Salvador. RTÉ reported that the regional electoral court cited his failure to provide free transportation on Election Day. Salvador’s mayor, Bruno Reis, a Bolsonaro ally, blamed trade unionists, who he said had illegally stuck Workers’ Party material on the vehicles.
Mr. Lula said 40 percent of buses had been taken off the road in São Paulo, also run by a Bolsonaro-allied mayor.
“I’ve never complained about anything in any election before,” he said. “Whether I won or lost, I’d just accept it and get ready for the next one. But this time, something abominable is happening.” Speaking to the press later, he said, “We will not be robbed by mayors, governors or businessmen.”
Kassio Nunes Marques, the president of the Superior Electoral Court, told reporters, “We do, in fact, have transportation difficulties in some locations, which are already being resolved.”
Mr. Bolsonaro, 45, ran on cutting food prices and a hard line on crime, including maximum-security prisons and chemical castration for serious sex offenders. He is the son of the former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted in 2025 of plotting a coup and is under house arrest. The senator had promised to seek an amnesty for his father. He also said he accepted about $12 million from Daniel Vorcaro, a disgraced former banker, to make a film about his father’s life, and he is under investigation for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in that case.
Mr. Lula, 80, governed from 2003 to 2010 and spent more than a year in prison on corruption convictions that were later annulled. After the first round he pushed costly measures: debt relief for small businesses, free public transit on weekends and a Senate-approved plan to end the six-day workweek.
The result is a loss for Washington. President Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on Brazil in 2025, explicitly tying it to Jair Bolsonaro’s trial, which he called a “witch hunt.” Mr. Lula called the tariffs bullying. Flávio Bolsonaro made a point of his White House ties, but Mr. Trump said on Sunday that he was watching the election and declined to endorse anyone. Trump allies won elections in Chile, Peru and Colombia this year, Eléonore Hughes wrote in The Independent. Brazil will now join Mexico in keeping a left-of-center government.
More than 33 million of the nearly 160 million eligible voters stayed home in the first round, even though voting is mandatory. Diogo Furtado, a 35-year-old Uber driver in Rio de Janeiro, said he would cast a blank ballot on Sunday. “Brazil needs a new candidate,” he said.
Mr. Lula’s new term starts in January. Because of coming retirements, he will appoint at least three of the Supreme Court’s 11 justices before it ends.