Why Lula won: three million more people voted in the runoff
Flávio Bolsonaro won the first round, gained the backing of three defeated candidates and led in the polls. Yet Lula remains president. Between the two rounds he added 10.4 million votes, more than all the eliminated candidates received together in the first round. The outcome was decided by people who had not voted the first time or had cast an invalid ballot.
10/26/2026
Brazil's presidential election: Lula wins the runoff, prediction shows
Polls before the runoff had Flávio Bolsonaro slightly ahead, and during the night the running count briefly put him in front of Lula. From the first minutes of the count, however, the DataTimes.cz prediction pointed to a win for the incumbent president: Lula will finish on 51.8 per cent and beat the son of his predecessor by more than four million votes.
10/25/2026