Lula Wins Fourth Term in Brazil as Flavio Bolsonaro Refuses to Concede and Seeks Annulment

Brazil's electoral court declared Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva the winner of Sunday's presidential runoff, and within hours his challenger, Flavio Bolsonaro, stood before reporters and said he could not accept it. Official results gave Lula 51.7% of the vote and Bolsonaro 48.2%, a narrow margin that gives the dispute over how the day unfolded real weight.

Bolsonaro, son of the far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, centered his objection on a decision by Supreme Court judge Cristiano Zanin to extend voting hours nationwide by two hours, to 7 p.m. local time. "What happened today was not normal. It was unacceptable," he said, arguing that a nationwide extension undermined equal treatment between states and changed the rules mid-election. He said he would take legal action and called for the result to be annulled.

The extension had its origins in complaints from both camps. Lula's campaign asked for more time, citing trouble getting voters to polling stations in several states. Lula said 40% of buses in Sao Paulo, the country's largest city, had been kept from service, a claim that matched local media reports of 75 buses blocked from leaving garages. He blamed mayors and business owners, and said that although he had never complained about an election before, win or lose, "something abominable is happening." Bolsonaro's campaign had also sought extra time, but only in municipalities across five states, citing heavy rain, flooding and power outages.

Lula's win is historic in two ways. At nearly 81, he secures an unprecedented fourth term, after serving from 2003 to 2010 and returning in 2023. He also finished the first round at 45%, two points behind Bolsonaro, making him the first candidate since direct presidential elections returned in 1989 to overcome a first-round deficit and win the runoff. Pollsters said higher-than-expected turnout among about 159 million eligible voters appeared to help him. As is typical in Brazil, conservative candidates led early in the count before votes from the poorer, more populous northeast pulled the left ahead.

His government's record cut both ways. Under his Workers' Party, unemployment fell to a record low, poverty declined, the minimum wage rose and Amazon deforestation decreased, while Congress approved a gradual move to a five-day working week. Against that stood rising living costs, high public debt, his spending policies and a scandal over alleged pension fraud, which left many voters open to a Bolsonaro return.

In his victory speech, delivered in a hoarse voice, Lula thanked his campaign team and the young people who took to the streets to defend democracy, and called the result a loss for negativity and lies. He repeated a campaign refrain that Brazil would "not accept being anyone's backyard," a message aimed at US influence. Relations with Washington soured in 2025, when the US imposed tariffs on Brazil in retaliation for proceedings against Jair Bolsonaro, later convicted of coup-plotting. President Donald Trump, who endorsed neither candidate, is close to the Bolsonaro family. Lula also promised better regulation of big tech platforms after legal complaints that Meta interfered in the campaign.

Congratulations arrived from across the region. Chile's president, Jose Antonio Kast, said he had spoken with Lula and that the two countries share a long future. Mexico's Claudia Sheinbaum wrote, "Long live democracy, the people of Brazil won." The leaders of Uruguay, Paraguay, Panama and Bolivia also posted congratulations, as did Cuba's president.

Before the vote, Supreme Federal Court president Edson Fachin urged all sides to respect the outcome, and some observers had warned Flavio Bolsonaro might refuse to concede as his father did in 2022. Now the question is whether his legal challenge gains traction, and how Lula balances relations with Washington against his sovereignty message in a fourth term facing a strong right-wing opposition.