{"id":792286,"date":"2026-10-05T03:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T03:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/792286\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T03:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T03:26:14","slug":"brazils-presidential-race-goes-to-second-round-as-flavio-bolsonaro-leads-incumbent-lula-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/792286\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil\u2019s presidential race goes to second round as Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro leads incumbent Lula | Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brazil\u2019s presidential race will go to a second round after the far-right candidate, Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro, beat the incumbent leftwing president, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva<\/a>, but failed to secure the outright majority he needed to avoid a runoff.<\/p>\n

With 99.9% of votes counted, the 45-year-old son of the disgraced former president, Jair Bolsonaro, had won 47%, meaning he will now face a 25 October showdown with his 80-year-old rival. Lula received 45.1%. Bolsonaro received 56.1m votes to Lula\u2019s 53.8m.<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro will go into the second round as strong favourite and is likely to be boosted by the migration of votes from the election\u2019s other rightwing candidates, who included Ronaldo Caiado, who secured 2.1%, and Renan Santos, who won 2.2%.<\/p>\n

Brazil\u2019s far-right put in an even stronger than expected showing, with a succession of Bolsonarista politicians winning congressional or gubernatorial races. They included Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s second son, Carlos Bolsonaro, and his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, who both won seats in the senate. Bolsonaro\u2019s youngest son, Jair Renan, was elected to the lower house of congress. Bolsonaro\u2019s former infrastructure minister, Tarc\u00edsio de Freitas, was reelected as governor of S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil\u2019s most populous and economically important state.<\/p>\n

Of the 54 senators elected, 34 were from the right or far right.<\/p>\n

Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro told supporters in the capital, Bras\u00edlia, that the result signalled \u201cthe end of an era\u201d for Lula\u2019s Workers\u2019 party. \u201cLula has fought seven presidential elections. He\u2019s worried about power. I am worried about the future of Brazil,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u200bSpeaking in S\u0101o Paulo, Lula put a brave face on a difficult night for the left. \u201cWe have just had a lesson in Brazilian democracy,\u201d he said. \u201cThe result is often unexpected. We can never get everything we wanted. I confess to you that I was convinced I was going to win the election in the first round \u2026 But we have a second round.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lula said Bolsonaro\u2019s \u201cdark past\u201d would become clearer to voters in the lead-up to that vote. \u201cFrom tomorrow we will launch a new campaign: [and in] a campaign with only two candidates we will be able to show the difference between our proposals for Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lula speaks to supporters following the partial results of the presidential election. Photograph: Nelson Almeida\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Earlier, as he cast this vote, Lula said Latin America\u2019s largest democracy faced a stark choice, highlighting his adversary\u2019s well-documented links to members of Rio\u2019s underworld<\/a>, including once employing close relatives of a notorious contract killer.<\/p>\n

Lula, who became Brazil\u2019s first elected working-class president in 2002 and was returned to office in 2006 and 2022, is hoping to secure a historic fourth non-consecutive term<\/a> in this year\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

Allies of the veteran leftwinger called the election a crucial battle in the fight against a far-right movement that less than four years ago brought chaos to the capital, Bras\u00edlia, during an unsuccessful attempt to overturn the result of the 2022 election, when Lula beat the incumbent president, Jair Bolsonaro.<\/p>\n

Supporters of Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro react after the country\u2019s electoral authority announced the runoff. Photograph: Tita Barros\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro hopes winning the presidency will allow him to free his father, who is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a failed coup after refusing to accept he had lost the last election to Lula. Ahead of the election he also called for tactical voting from conservatives who are not supporters of Bolsonarismo, but want to vote Lula out of power.<\/p>\n

As well as the president, Brazil\u2019s nearly 159 million voters were choosing state parliamentarians, 27 state governors, 513 members of the lower house and 54 members of the 81-seat senate. Bolsonaro supporters made the senate race a priority because senators are the only lawmakers who can impeach supreme court justices \u2013 a demand among Bolsonaristas since the court jailed the former president for attempting a coup.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of leftwingers had gathered at the heart of Laranjeiras, one of Rio\u2019s most leftwing neighbourhoods, hoping to celebrate a Lula win to the sound of samba. But the mood soured and tears were shed as the hours passed and Bolsonaro\u2019s lead over Lula held.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so sad that the Brazilian people \u2026 have opted for so much retrogression,\u201d said Marcelo Mac, one of the owners of Miolo, a leftwing bar in Laranjeiras, as the scale of the rightwing advance was confirmed on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

Mac, 46, voiced perplexity that the son of the man who tried to stage a coup only four years ago was now in pole position to become Brazil\u2019s next leader. \u201cHe\u2019s such an abominable guy that he manages to be even worse than his father,\u201d Mac said of Bolsonaro.<\/p>\n

Beside the bar a yellow flag stamped with Lula\u2019s face carried the slogan: \u201cTurn left\u201d. But Brazil had voted for a turn to the far right.<\/p>\n

A Lula supporter dressed as Our Lady of Aparecida at a campaign rally in Rio de Janeiro on Friday. A row over the saint has caused a nationwide outcry \u2013\u00a0which could favour Lula, who is Catholic. Photograph: Pilar Olivares\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro seemed to have the wind in his sails in the final days before Sunday\u2019s vote, amid public frustration at a cost of living crisis and urban violence.<\/p>\n

But opinion polls failed to predict the scale of the rightwing triumph.<\/p>\n

Shop assistant Italo Andrade dos Santos, \u200ba 31\u200b-year-old Bolsonaro voter, had to keep his celebrations restrained behind the counter of the pharmacy where he was working a Sunday night shift. \u201cI was a little disappointed because I expected Fl\u00e1vio to win in the first round\u200b. But I\u2019m happy he\u2019s ahead,\u201d said Santos, adding that he voted \u201cmore to get Lula out than for Fl\u00e1vio himself\u201d.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump became a key election issue<\/a>, with Lula accusing the US president of trying to swing the vote in Bolsonaro\u2019s favour in order to \u201ccolonise\u201d Brazil and appropriate its natural resources. Bolsonaro has vowed to build a closer relationship with Trump, who hopes a rightwing victory will help him further cement US control over Latin America after the election of pro-Trump leaders in a succession of countries, including Chile, Colombia and Peru.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brazil\u2019s presidential race will go to a second round after the far-right candidate, Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro, beat the incumbent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-792286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}