Brazilians will return to the polls on Oct. 25 to choose between candidates President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro after neither cleared the 50% threshold needed to win outright on Oct. 4.
Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, finished first in the polls with 47.03%, about 56.1 million valid votes. Lula, who is seeking a fourth nonconsecutive term, received 45.16%, about 53.9 million of votes. The difference in votes between the two was roughly 2.2 million, according to the final count issued by Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court.
The result defied most pre-election polls, which had projected Lula to finish first in the first round. Bolsonaro said he was depending on “protest votes” from people whose priority is defeating Lula.
Bolsonaro’s right-wing Liberal Party also became the largest force in the lower house of Brazil’s National Congress, the Chamber of Deputies, and gained ground in the Senate, where the party almost doubled its seats. Some family members also won a seat, including his stepmother, former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro.
Voters who backed other candidates could decide the runoff. Augusto Cury and Renan Santos, who finished third and fourth with a combined 6.1 million votes, have said they will not endorse either candidate. Ronaldo Caiado, who finished fifth with 2.6 million votes, announced his support for Bolsonaro on Oct. 6.
Bolsonaro has pledged to seek legal pardons for his father and others convicted over the January 2023 storming of government buildings after his father’s defeat in the last election.
Lula has pledged during his campaign to prevent the Bolsonaro family from returning to power. He has also predicted that the Trump administration will try to tilt the race.
“They will try to interfere here. They will try to help the other side win the elections,” he said on the Inteligência LTDA podcast.
The U.S. State Department, responding to Brazil’s denial of visas to two of its officials, called any suggestion of a “ploy” to undermine the election “a baseless lie,” the Associated Press reported.
U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled support for the Bolsonaro family, while Lula’s popularity grew after he denounced Trump’s tariffs as “infringements on Brazilian sovereignty,” according to Americas Quarterly.
The winner will be inaugurated on Jan. 5, 2027.
