Lula wins fourth term

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva secured his fourth term as president of Brazil on Sunday, defeating challenger Flávio Bolsonaro by a margin of 4.3 million votes. With nearly 99% of ballots counted, Lula received 51.75% of the total, while Bolsonaro, who is 45, captured 48.25%.

The victory represents a complete reversal of the first-round results from early October. Lula, who turns 81 on Tuesday, had trailed Bolsonaro by 2.2 million votes after the initial election. No candidate who finished second in the first round has ever won the runoff since Brazil returned to democracy in the 1980s, making this outcome historically rare.

Turnout shifts drove the result. The first round featured a record abstention rate of 21.08%, a figure that disproportionately hurt Lula because his supporters often live far from polling stations. In the runoff, abstention dropped to 19.21%. Lula’s allies had identified increased voter participation as their primary advantage heading into the final week.

Reginaldo Lopes, a key ally, described the confirmation of the win as Brazil sending a message to the world about the extreme right. He stated that the country would now reorganize its democratic forces. Lula’s political career began in the late 1970s as a union leader in the industrial suburbs of São Paulo. He lost three presidential bids in 1989, 1994, and 1998 before becoming the first elected working-class president in 2002. He served two terms, left office, and returned in 2022 by defeating the then-incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.

The loss marks a major setback for the Bolsonaro family. Jair Bolsonaro, currently serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup, lives under house arrest in Brasília. He had hoped to be freed and assume a government role if his son won. His son watched the count from there, where the confirmation was met with anger.

The result also affects US President Donald Trump, who had expected Brazil to join a group of pro-Trump leaders in Latin America. That group includes Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia, Daniel Noboa in Ecuador, José Antonio Kast in Chile, and Javier Milei in Argentina. Lula’s supporters demonstrated their numbers on Saturday, with more than a million gathering on Copacabana beach in Rio and a larger crowd marching on Paulista Avenue in São Paulo.

Voters in São Paulo expressed frustration over an alleged effort by pro-Bolsonaro politicians to disrupt the vote by sabotaging public transport in areas that lean toward Lula. The attempt failed. Camilo Buarque, 35, who waved a red flag on Paulista Avenue on Sunday, called the event a demonstration of democracy. Photographer Caio Marques, 40, noted that while the left failed in the first round, they woke up in the second.