Brazil’s Lula wins historic fourth term, Flavio Bolsonaro refuses to concede
Supporters of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Workers' Party (PT) candidate for presidential re-election, gather as they celebrate after Lula's victory in the presidential runoff election, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 25, 2026.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won a historic fourth term on Sunday, the country's electoral court said, in a shock result that defied polls, precedent and global anti-incumbent sentiment to put the brakes on a wave of right-wing election victories across Latin America.
However, his opponent Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, refused to accept defeat and said he would ask for the result to be annulled due to a Sunday ruling from a Supreme Court justice that extended voting for two hours.
Bolsonaro led the election's first round but lost in the runoff by over four million votes, rattling Brazilian financial markets which had bet on his victory. His refusal to concede defeat has echoes of his father's reaction after losing to Lula in 2022. Jair Bolsonaro never accepted his loss and was later sentenced by the Supreme Court to 27-years in prison for plotting a coup to remain in power.
The scale of Flavio Bolsonaro's loss to Lula — by more than twice his father's losing margin — and the fact his campaign also asked for an extension due to rains in the conservative-leaning south make any annulment unlikely, analysts said.
Mario Braga, a Latin America analyst at the risk consultancy RANE, said there could be right-wing protests in coming days, but "it's very improbable that it will lead to the reversal of the result."
Comeback king
Investors expect recent bets on a change of government to unwind in a volatile week ahead on financial markets. A Tokyo-listed exchange-traded fund tracking Brazil's Bovespa index (1325.T), dived nearly 15 percent in Asia trade on news of Lula's victory, while the Brazilian real was set to fall sharply against the US dollar.
The victory marks another comeback in a career full of them for Lula, an icon of the global left and the most dominant force in Brazilian politics this century. The 80-year-old was jailed from 2018 to 2019 on corruption charges that were later overturned, paving the way for him to beat Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 election.
