Brazil's electoral court declared Lula the winner, Folha and O Globo report

First published Oct. 25, 2026, at 7:29 p.m. ET as a Live News report. Updated 8:23 p.m. ET: Brazilian outlets reported the TSE declared Lula the winner; earlier versions reported the count in progress.

Key figure: Polling stations counted, 9:23 p.m. BRT: 99.85%, Lula 51.76%, F. Bolsonaro 48.24%. Source: TSE, 8:23 p.m. ET, Oct. 25, 2026.

Key points

• Brazil’s electoral court declared Lula reelected, Folha and O Globo reported; both called it a fourth term.[10][14]
• At 9:23 p.m. BRT, with 99.85% of stations counted, Lula had 51.76% and Flávio Bolsonaro 48.24%, TSE data show.[1]
• Zanin extended voting to 7 p.m. BRT at polling stations not yet closed at 5 p.m., the STF said.[2][12][13]
• The TSE paused its count at 5:06 p.m. BRT with 0.25% counted, then resumed it after 7 p.m.[4][5][3][1]

What happened

Polls in Brazil’s presidential runoff were scheduled to close at 5 p.m. Brasília time (4 p.m. ET) on Sunday. At about that time, Supreme Court (STF) Justice Cristiano Zanin extended voting by two hours, to 7 p.m. BRT, after Lula’s campaign reported bus shortages, Agência Brasil, G1 and Valor reported. The order applied to polling stations nationwide that had not yet closed at 5 p.m., the STF said; the case was brought over three Bahia cities, including Salvador.[9][4][6][5][8][2][12]

In a follow-up order, Zanin wrote that votes in machines already closed would be counted and totaled, and that both runoff campaigns had alleged voter transport problems. The STF published both orders at 6:28 p.m. BRT; a TSE note at 6:44 p.m. said the same. Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign had asked the electoral court (TSE) for two more hours in cities hit by heavy rain, G1 and the BBC reported.[13][2][3][6][7][8]

The result

The TSE declared Lula reelected, Folha and O Globo reported; both said it is his fourth term. The TSE results file had not yet marked a candidate elected as of 9:23 p.m. BRT. At that time (8:23 p.m. ET), with 99.85% of 499,248 polling stations counted, Lula had 64,136,514 votes and Flávio Bolsonaro 59,767,869, TSE data show. The TSE had paused its tally at 5:06 p.m. BRT with 0.25% of polling stations counted, Agência Brasil and Valor reported, and resumed it after 7 p.m.[10][14][1][4][5][3]

Why it matters: 3.52 points separated the two at 9:23 p.m. BRT; Brazil’s 2022 runoff ended 50.90% to 49.10%, a 1.80 point gap, in the TSE’s final count.[1][11]

Exhibit 1. The TSE count paused until after 7 p.m. BRT Brasília time (BRT) and ET, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026

BRT	ET	Event
5:00 p.m.	4:00 p.m.	Polls scheduled to close
About 5 p.m.	About 4 p.m.	Zanin extends voting to 7 p.m.
5:06 p.m.	4:06 p.m.	TSE pauses count at 0.25%
6:28 p.m.	5:28 p.m.	STF: only polls still open
7:00 p.m.	6:00 p.m.	Extended voting ends
9:23 p.m.	8:23 p.m.	TSE: 99.85% counted; outlets report call

Source: STF, TSE, Agência Brasil, Valor, G1, Folha, O Globo. Table: New Street.[9][4][6][5][8][2][12][13][3][1][10][14]

Exhibit 2. Lula had 51.76% of valid votes at 9:23 p.m. BRT Valid votes, TSE count as of 9:23 p.m. BRT (8:23 p.m. ET), Oct. 25, 2026

Candidate	Votes	Share
Lula (PT)	64,136,514	51.76%
Flávio Bolsonaro (PL)	59,767,869	48.24%
Gap	4,368,645	3.52 pts
Stations counted	498,523	99.85%

Source: TSE, resultados.tse.jus.br. Table: New Street.[1]

Notes

• Sources: all accessed Oct. 25, 2026, between 7:15 and 8:27 p.m. ET. The TSE results file (ref. 1) was read at 8:25 p.m. ET (00:25 UTC); its totalization timestamp is 21:23:43 BRT. The STF orders (refs. 12 and 13) are scanned PDFs, read at 7:24 p.m. ET.
• Times are Brasília time (BRT, UTC-3) and US Eastern (ET, EDT, UTC-4) on Oct. 25, 2026. Vote shares are of valid votes; “polling stations” are TSE seções eleitorais (499,248 in all, per ref. 1). The exact time of Zanin’s order is reported differently (Estadão: signed at 17:01 BRT; other outlets: minutes before the 17:00 close), so the piece says “about 5 p.m.” The two outlets that list the states in the Bolsonaro campaign’s rain request (G1, Estadão) list different states, so none are named. All counts are from one TSE results file (ref. 1); vote figures published by news outlets are not used. The TSE declaration is attributed to Folha and O Globo (refs. 10 and 14); the TSE results file had not marked a candidate elected as of the snapshot. Outlets report different times for the declaration, so none is given. Scope of the order: the STF decision (ref. 12) extended voting “em todas as seções de todo o Brasil”; the follow-up order (ref. 13) said it applies “nos locais onde as urnas não foram fechadas”; the STF notice (ref. 2) says “em todos os municípios brasileiros, nos locais onde as urnas não foram fechadas às 17h.” The case (RCL 101.673/BA) named Salvador, Feira de Santana and Lauro de Freitas. The gap in Exhibit 2 is computed by New Street from ref. 1 (votes: 64,136,514 minus 59,767,869; share: 51.76% minus 48.24%). Candidates are listed in the order of their votes in the snapshot. Corrections, if any, are logged at newstreet.xyz/corrections.