Polling stations were initially scheduled to close at 5:00 p.m. BRT (8:00 p.m. GMT), but voting was extended by two hours; some neighborhoods had already counted. Full coverage here
Second round results live
Goalkeeper graphic. Source: IS
How the election takes place
The president of Brazil is elected solely by popular vote. A winning candidate needs one vote more than 50% of the votes cast; there is no role for parliament or any electoral college.
No candidate having obtained 50% in the first round on October 4, the two leading candidates are presenting themselves in the second round. One of them is Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the left-wing outgoing president, commonly known as Lula. The other candidate, the main contender in the first round, is Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro Sr. is serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a failed coup attempt after losing to Lula in the 2022 election, but he has supported his son and hopes to be released if he wins. Bolsonaro junior is a lawyer and former senator from Rio.
In 2022, Lula defeated Jair Bolsonaro in the second round, with an electoral base concentrated in the northeast of the country, while Bolsonaro led in the south. But on this occasion, Lula entered the second round leading the first round and won the flagship state of Minas Gerais, north of Rio de Janeiro. In the first round of the 2026 elections, Bolsonaro defeated Lula in Minas Gerais by 48.43% to 43.33%.
Never since the return of democracy to Brazil in 1985 has the finalist of the first round managed to reverse the situation and win the second vote. But Lula’s campaign was buoyed by massive student-led anti-Bolsonaro protests after the first round and hopes to mount a historic fightback on Sunday.
Lula is already the longest-serving president in modern Brazilian history, serving two terms from 2003 to 2010, before returning to power in 2023. He will turn 81 on Tuesday. Bolsonaro is 45 years old.
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