MOSCOW, October 26. /TASS/. Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court, which carries out the functions of the Central Election Commission, has completed the vote count for the second round of the presidential election. According to the final results, with 100% of ballots counted, incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has officially been reelected.
TASS has compiled the key information about the voting results.
Election results
According to the election authority’s final statistics, Lula da Silva, the candidate of the left-wing Workers’ Party, won with 51.79% of the vote, receiving 64,256,232 votes.
His rival, right-wing opposition Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, received 48.21%, with 59,826,041 people voting for him.
The total number of valid votes was 124,082,273.
Voter turnout in the second round stood at 80.78%, with 128,236,074 citizens taking part in the vote.
A total of 19.22% of the electorate, or 30,509,005 people, did not vote.
Invalid ballots accounted for 2.12%, or 2,723,305 ballots.
Another 1.12%, or 1,430,496 ballots, were blank.
A total of 158,745,502 people were eligible to vote in the election.
Records set
Lula da Silva set a new record by receiving the largest number of votes in the country’s history.
He also became the first politician in Brazilian history to hold the country’s highest office for a fourth time and set a record for the number of reelections since the rule allowing them was introduced in 1997. He has now been reelected twice.
In addition, Lula da Silva became the first candidate in the country’s history to win the election after finishing behind in the first round, when he received 45.16% of the vote against Flavio Bolsonaro’s 47.03%.
He will also become the oldest president in Brazil’s history.
According to CNN Brasil, the politician will be 81 years old when he takes office.
His fourth term as president will officially begin on January 5, 2027.
Flavio Bolsonaro’s position
Flavio Bolsonaro, the right-wing opposition candidate and senator who lost the second round of Brazil’s presidential election, refused to recognize the voting results and said they should be annulled.
He cited the judicial authorities’ decision to extend voting hours by two hours as the reason.
However, Bolsonaro’s campaign team, which refused to recognize the election results over the authorities’ decision to extend polling hours, had itself submitted a similar request, CNN Brasil reported.
According to the broadcaster, the campaign teams of both candidates had formally asked the courts to adjust voting hours.
Bolsonaro’s team requested an extension of voting in Sao Paulo state and several cities in the south of the country because of heavy rains that hit the region on the eve of and during the second round.
Meanwhile, the campaign team of incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s ruling left-wing Workers’ Party justified its request by citing a reduced bus fleet and transport problems in several states, including Sao Paulo and Bahia.
According to CNN Brasil, the Supreme Federal Court selectively considered the request submitted by the Workers’ Party’s campaign team.
The request was referred to Justice Cristiano Zanin, who ordered voting hours to be extended nationwide.