Lula won 51.8% of the vote against 48.2% for Bolsonaro, a margin of about 4.4 million votes, according to Brazil's electoral authority. The 80-year-old leftist leader, who turns 81 on Tuesday, will begin his fourth non-consecutive term on January 5, 2027.
It is the first time since Brazil returned to direct presidential elections in 1989 that a candidate has won the presidency after finishing second in the first round. Lula trailed in the first vote in early October, 45.16% to Bolsonaro's 47.03%, and polls the day before the runoff still had him behind by two points. Between the two rounds he added more than 10 million votes; his rival gained just 3.6 million.
"God watches over me"
Lula celebrated on Avenida Paulista, the largest avenue in São Paulo, in front of a euphoric crowd, amid firecrackers and red smoke flares. "God watches over me!" he declared, his voice weary. "Everything that has happened to me in life has been a miracle."
In Rio de Janeiro, supporters hugged, beeped their car horns and raised the "L" sign. In Belo Horizonte, capital of the key swing state of Minas Gerais, crowds chanted and sang into the night. Lula thanked the Brazilian people for their "generosity," especially the country's youth who he said "took to the streets to defend democracy."
"I can assure you that we are going to change the way we govern this country. We are going to give the people a greater role in our decisions," he said after his reelection.
Bolsonaro: "It is impossible to recognize the result"
Flávio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro — who is now serving a prison sentence for plotting to overturn the 2022 election he lost to Lula — told supporters in Brasília that he would not accept the outcome and would mount a legal challenge.
"It is impossible to recognize the election result given how these events unfolded," Bolsonaro said. "We will take legal action. We will ask for this election to be annulled."
His team is challenging a last-minute ruling by Supreme Federal Court Justice Cristiano Zanin to extend voting by two hours, arguing the uneven application of the measure undermined equal voting conditions. Bolsonaro's own campaign, however, had also requested an extension in some areas, citing difficulties voters faced reaching polling stations because of heavy rain.
As his father did four years ago, Flávio Bolsonaro refused to recognize the result and announced he would seek to have the election annulled through the courts — setting up a legal fight over a victory that the electoral authority has already confirmed.
The win is a major setback for the Bolsonaro political movement, which failed to accomplish what Jair Bolsonaro also could not do in 2022: defeat Lula at the ballot box. It also halts, at least in Brazil, a rightward political shift sweeping Latin America — and keeps Lula as the leading figure of the regional left.
Fuentes: Reuters, 26 oct 2026; CNN, 26 oct 2026; Le Monde, 26 oct 2026.