Lula is declared winner of Brazil’s election as Bolsonaro rejects results

With 100% of the vote counted, Brazil’s electoral court announced that the soon-to-be 81-year-old Mr Lula had a lead of nearly 4.4 million votes – 51.8% of the total vote – over opponent Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro.

The announcement capped an evening of confusion at polling stations across Brazil, following a last-minute decision to extend voting by two hours.

Late on Sunday local time, Mr Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat, calling the move to extend voting hours unprecedented – though both he and Mr Lula made the request – and asked for the election results to be annulled, saying they were impossible to accept.

Mr Lula’s triumph bucks a trend in Latin America where increasing numbers of presidential candidates allied with Mr Trump have been winning.

It also positions Latin America’s largest economy, with a GDP of 2.6 trillion dollars (£1.9 trillion) per year, to remain independent of the US, despite the pressure of increased tariffs imposed by Mr Trump.

A video published by Mr Lula’s campaign shows the veteran leader celebrating with First Lady Rosangela da Silva and allies after his run-off victory was confirmed by Brazil’s electoral court.

Wearing star-shaped red glasses, he kissed his wife. Hundreds of his supporters began gathering on Sao Paulo’s main artery to celebrate the victory.

Speaking to his supporters, thousands of whom gathered in Sao Paulo and in Rio de Janeiro’s Cinelandia Square, Mr Lula expressed his gratitude to the Brazilian people, and pledged to respect all Brazilians, regardless of gender or religion. He also attacked Mr Bolsonaro.

“This was a defeat for denialism and lies. I must confess that every time I attended a debate, I felt embarrassed,” he said.

He also emphasised his commitment to Brazil’s sovereignty.

“Either the homeland remains free, or we die for Brazil,” he said. “This country will not accept being anyone’s backyard.”

In Rio de Janeiro, cars beeped their horns and a woman dressed in red — the colour of Mr Lula supporters — shouted “You lost! Cry harder!” to four men in yellow and green sipping beers, Mr Bolsonaro’s signature colours.

A huge roar echoed in the street as the result was confirmed.

Rodrigo Valentim, a 51-year-old businessman and supporter of Mr Bolsonaro, said that another Lula government would harm the economy.

He pointed to financial markets’ positive reaction to the result of the first round, when Mr Bolsonaro beat Mr Lula.

“I don’t understand how people can vote for Lula,” he said. “The country is collapsing.”

Mr Lula’s victory, if confirmed by electoral authorities, will give him his non-consecutive fourth term as president. The next term begins on January 5 2027.

The electoral court’s announcement ended an evening of confusion at polling stations after Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin ruled three minutes before the scheduled end of voting to keep polls open for two more hours, following requests by both candidates. Mr Lula’s request came after issues with buses that provide transportation to polls in Sao Paulo and Salvador, two cities that tend to favour the incumbent. Mr Bolsonaro’s request was due to heavy rain in Brazil’s south, where he is favoured.

The decision delayed tallying the votes by two hours. It was unclear how many polling stations stayed open after the scheduled closing time. Polling stations in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro closed shortly after the original 5pm deadline, reporters for The Associated Press observed.

Mr Bolsonaro, whose father is serving a 27-year prison sentence for attempting a coup after he lost the 2022 presidential election to Mr Lula, pointed out that Mr Zanin is Mr Lula’s former lawyer and criticised him for “changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game”.

“It’s impossible to recognise the results of the election in the context of these things that happened,” he said.

It is not clear if Mr Bolsonaro’s complaint could meet the legal threshold to annul the results. Mr Bolsonaro also has the right to request a recount if he has evidence of fraud, but that might not change the results.

The president of the electoral court, Kassio Nunes Marques, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by Jair Bolsonaro, said that the extension of voting hours did not impact results.

Joao Pedro Padua, a law professor at the Fluminense Federal University, said that Mr Bolsonaro can file a lawsuit directly with the country’s electoral authorities or the Supreme Court, asking for the elections to be declared null and void.

“But there isn’t much legal basis for that,” Mr Padua said. “The extension of voting hours is unusual, but for it to invalidate the elections, the candidate would have to prove that it affected voters’ ability to freely express their will. There doesn’t seem to have been any such impact.”

It is the first time since Brazil’s military dictatorship ended in 1985 that the second-highest vote-winner in the first round of elections won the presidency.

Mr Bolsonaro had 47% of the vote in the first round to Mr Lula’s 45%, a difference of 2.2 million votes.

Sunday’s victory will likely be the last of the veteran leader’s political career. Mr Lula began his political career in the 1970s as a union leader.

He then helped found the Workers’ Party, which he represented as a presidential candidate three times until he finally won it in 2002.

He was re-elected four years later and was succeeded by one of his cabinet ministers, Dilma Rousseff, in 2010. She was re-elected in 2014.

Ms Rousseff was impeached for accounting manoeuvring in 2016 amid a sprawling corruption probe, which also ensnared Mr Lula.

He tried to run for president again in 2018 but was jailed in March after being convicted.

Mr Lula was released from prison after 580 days and saw Brazil’s Supreme Court annul his sentence after police found messages that showed the judge who convicted him was biased.

He quickly became one of former president Jair Bolsonaro’s biggest critics and narrowly beat him in 2022.

Mr Lula admitted in 2024, two years into the job, that his administration had done little that far to earn the support of his voters.

Since he lost the first round, Mr Lula reorganised his campaign, appealed to young voters, put millions of Brazilians on the streets to defend democratic values and his legacy, raised fears of another Bolsonaro administration and boosted several government initiatives.

Mr Lula also defended Brazil’s sovereignty and insisted that a presidency under Mr Bolsonaro would allow the US to exert control over Brazil.

He joins Mr Trump and Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega — both aged 80 — as the oldest presidents in the Americas.