Lula Wins Fourth Term; Bolsonaro Refuses to Concede Brazil

Summary

Lula won Brazil's October 25 runoff with about 51.8% of the vote against Flávio Bolsonaro's 48.2%, a margin of roughly 4.4 million votes
It is the first time since Brazil's return to democracy that a candidate trailing after the first round has won the runoff
Bolsonaro, son of jailed former president Jair Bolsonaro, says he will seek to annul the result, citing a court-ordered extension of voting hours due to heavy rain
The win keeps Brazil's leftist government in power and runs counter to a recent pattern of victories for Trump-aligned candidates in Latin America

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has defeated Flávio Bolsonaro in a runoff vote, completing a comeback from a first-round deficit. Bolsonaro has refused to accept the outcome and says he will seek to have the election annulled.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won a fourth term as Brazil’s president, overturning a first-round deficit to defeat Senator Flávio Bolsonaro in Sunday’s runoff election, according to Reuters and Brazil’s electoral authority, the TSE.

Official figures put Lula’s share of the vote at about 51.8%, equivalent to roughly 64.26 million votes, against 48.2% for Bolsonaro, or around 59.83 million votes. The margin of victory was about 4.4 million votes, according to Euronews, which cited live results from the TSE.

The result marks the first time since Brazil returned to democracy that a candidate who trailed in the first round has gone on to win the runoff. Bolsonaro had led the October 2 first round with about 47% of the vote to Lula’s 45%, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Bolsonaro refuses to concede

Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of jailed former president Jair Bolsonaro, has declined to accept the outcome. He has pointed to a court order extending voting hours in some regions because of heavy rain, calling the measure unprecedented, even though he had also requested such an extension himself, according to Newsweek.

It is impossible to recognize the results. I am going to request the annulment of these elections.

Bolsonaro also criticized Supreme Court justice Cristiano Zanin, a former personal lawyer to Lula, accusing him of “changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game” by ordering the extension.

His refusal to concede echoes his father’s conduct after the 2022 election, which Jair Bolsonaro also lost to Lula. The elder Bolsonaro is now serving a 27-year prison sentence for attempting a coup following that defeat, according to Euronews and The Times of Israel.

A result against the regional grain

The election unfolded against a backdrop of tension between Washington and Brasília. The Trump administration imposed 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods in 2025, a move partly linked to the prosecution of Jair Bolsonaro, Newsweek reported.

Lula’s victory, with running mate Geraldo Alckmin, keeps Brazil’s leftist government in office and bucks a wider trend of recent wins for right-of-center, Trump-aligned candidates across Latin America. Benjamin Gedan, a former White House National Security Council director for South America, described Flávio Bolsonaro and his father as “paradigmatic election denialists,” according to Newsweek.

Bolsonaro’s running mate was Alfredo Gaspar. Turnout in the first round of the election stood at 78.92%, according to official data cited by Wikipedia.

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