{"id":894810,"date":"2026-10-26T03:12:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T03:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/894810\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T03:12:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T03:12:27","slug":"bolsonaro-calls-for-brazil-election-results-to-be-annulled-after-loss-to-trump-critic-lula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/894810\/","title":{"rendered":"Bolsonaro calls for Brazil election results to be ‘annulled’ after loss to Trump-critic Lula"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DefaultRIO DE JANEIRO \u2014<\/p>\n

Brazil\u2019s President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, was reelected Sunday in a result that provides relief to critics of widening U.S. influence in Latin America.<\/p>\n

With 100% of the vote counted, Brazil\u2019s electoral court announced that the soon-to-be 81-year-old Lula had a lead of nearly 4.4 million votes \u2014 51.8% of the total vote \u2014 over opponent Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro. The announcement capped an evening of chaos at polling places across Brazil, following a last-minute decision to extend voting by two hours.<\/p>\n

Late Sunday, Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat, calling the move to extend voting hours unprecedented \u2014 though both he and Lula made the request \u2014 and asked for the election results to be annulled, saying they were impossible to accept.<\/p>\n

Lula’s triumph bucks a trend in Latin America where increasing numbers of right-of-center presidential candidates allied with Trump have been winning. Lula\u2019s victory leaves Mexico and Brazil, Latin America\u2019s two most populous nations, with left-of-center leaders. It also positions Latin America\u2019s largest economy, with a GDP of $2.6 trillion per year, to remain independent of the U.S., despite the pressure of increased tariffs imposed by Trump.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Alexandre Schneider<\/p>\n

Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, incumbent president of Brazil and presidential candidate for Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), waves a Brazil flag during a rally ahead of the presidential runoff at Avenida Paulista on Oct. 24, 2026, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.<\/p>\n

\"\"Lula’s win confirmed by electoral court<\/p>\n

A video published by Lula\u2019s campaign shows the veteran leader celebrating with First Lady Ros\u00e2ngela da Silva and allies after his runoff victory was confirmed by Brazil\u2019s electoral court. Wearing star-shaped red glasses, he kissed his wife. Hundreds of his supporters began gathering on S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s main artery to celebrate the victory.<\/p>\n

In Rio de Janeiro, cars beeped their horns and a woman dressed in red \u2014 the color of Lula supporters \u2014 shouted \u201cYou lost! Cry harder!\u201d to four men in yellow and green sipping beers, Bolsonaro’s signature colors. A huge roar echoed in the street as the result was confirmed.<\/p>\n

Rodrigo Valentim, a 51-year-old businessman and supporter of Bolsonaro, said that another Lula government would harm the economy. He pointed to financial markets\u2019 positive reaction to the result of the first round, when Bolsonaro bested Lula.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand how people can vote for Lula,\u201d he said. \u201cThe country is collapsing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro had yet to respond to Lula’s apparent victory, which, if confirmed by electoral authorities, will give him his non-consecutive fourth term as president. The next term begins on Jan. 5, 2027.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Confusion at polling places<\/p>\n

The electoral court’s announcement ended an evening of confusion at polling places after Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin ruled three minutes before the scheduled end of voting to keep polls open for two more hours, following requests by both candidates. Lula\u2019s request came after issues with buses that provide transportation to polls in Sao Paulo and Salvador, two cities that tend to favor the incumbent. Bolsonaro\u2019s request was due to heavy rains in Brazil\u2019s south, where he is favored.<\/p>\n

In Brasilia, volunteers who oversaw the vote count at a school debated whether they needed to stay after the announcement to extend voting, but most left 15 to 20 minutes after polls closed and they had given count information to electoral authorities. At a polling station in Rio de Janeiro, the voting machines had already been switched off minutes after polls were set to close and couldn\u2019t be turned back on.<\/p>\n

The decision delayed tallying the votes by two hours. It was unclear how many polling stations stayed open after the scheduled closing time.<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro ally Nikolas Ferreira noted that Zanin, who made the decision, is Lula’s former lawyer.<\/p>\n

Security and cost-of-living concerns<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro bested Lula by more than 2.2 million votes in the first round of the election earlier this month. Sunday night’s apparent victory by Lula marked the first time since Brazil\u2019s military dictatorship ended in 1985 that the second-highest vote-getter in the first-round elections won the presidency.<\/p>\n

Lula faced a tough reelection battle because of concerns about the cost of living and security. Bolsonaro made a tough-on-crime approach the cornerstone of his campaign and pledged to bring down food costs, while Lula, trying to lure undecided voters, has invested in costly incentives.<\/p>\n

Both have been hit by corruption suspicions involving family members and allies, with Bolsonaro implicated in a sprawling scandal rocking Brazil. Lula previously spent more than a year in prison on corruption convictions that were eventually annulled.<\/p>\n

This will likely be the last victory of the veteran leader\u2019s political career. Lula began his political career in the 1970s as a union leader. He then helped found the Workers\u2019 Party, which he represented as a presidential candidate three times until he finally won it in 2002. He was reelected four years later and was succeeded by one of his cabinet ministers, Dilma Rousseff, in 2010. She was reelected in 2014.<\/p>\n

Rousseff was impeached for accounting maneuvering in 2016 amid a sprawling corruption probe, which also ensnared Lula. He tried to run for president again in 2018 but was jailed in March after being convicted.<\/p>\n

Lula was released from prison after 580 days and saw Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court annul his sentence after police found messages that showed the judge who convicted him was biased. He quickly became one of former President Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s biggest critics and narrowly beat him in 2022.<\/p>\n

Since he lost the first round, Lula reorganized his campaign, appealed to young voters, put millions of Brazilians on the streets to defend democratic values and his legacy, raised fears of another Bolsonaro administration and boosted several government initiatives.<\/p>\n

He joins Trump and Nicaragua\u2019s President Daniel Ortega \u2014 all aged 80 \u2014 as the oldest presidents in the Americas.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Savarese reported from Sao Paulo. Brigida reported from Brasilia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RIO DE JANEIRO \u2014 Brazil\u2019s President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111845,941,375199,375201,375200,375202,4,450,13961,327702,451,2561,41999,43191,3,5572,452,453],"class_list":["post-894810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-bolsonaro","tag-brazil","tag-brazil-election","tag-brazil-election-results","tag-brazil-polls","tag-brazilian-presidnet","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-election","tag-flavio-bolsonaro","tag-headlines","tag-jair-bolsonaro","tag-ldnd","tag-lula","tag-news","tag-president","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}