Brazil's veteran left-wing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was re-elected after a hotly contested election, defeating right-wing rival Flávio Bolsonaro, who had yet to admit defeat.
Brazil's Superior Electoral Court announced that after all votes were counted, Lula won 51.79% of the vote, while Bolsonaro received 48.21%.
But Bolsonaro refused to acknowledge the results, calling the two-hour extension to voting "inexplicable" despite requests from his campaign and those of his opponents that polling stations stay open longer. He told supporters in Brasilia that he would seek to annul the election.
However, that did not stop Lula and his supporters from celebrating what they called a "historic victory" and an unexpected comeback.
In his victory speech, Lula, who will turn 81 on Tuesday (October 27), praised young voters for taking to the streets to "defend Brazilian democracy."
His path to a fourth term has been rocky. He is the first leader to win the presidential election after losing the first round of voting since Brazil returned to democracy in 1988. It is also unprecedented for him to be re-elected for an additional second term.
He also bucked a broader trend in Latin America, where voters are punishing those in power and moving to the right. Across the region, large countries such as Argentina, Chile and Colombia are now run by conservative leaders.
"Our throats are tired," Lula began with a hoarse voice in her victory speech.
He almost immediately handed the microphone to Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, saying he wanted Alckmin to speak first.
"You saved Brazilian democracy for the second time," Alckmin told Lula. Lula then thanked the campaign coordinators and "the generosity of the Brazilian people," including young people who "took to the streets to defend Brazilian democracy."
He told the crowd that people voted because we were able to convince them that this vote was important to the sovereignty of our country.
He said the election was a "failure of negativity and lies." In his victory speech, Lula once again emphasized that Brazil "will not accept being anyone's backyard."
This was one of his repeated statements during the campaign, pointing to the term "America's backyard", which is used to summarize a concept in U.S. policy: Latin America should be within the U.S. sphere of influence.
Lula's campaign has been reinvigorated after a first-round defeat, fueled by street demonstrations and a massive social media offensive.
The former metalworker has been a dominant figure on Brazil's left since he first ran for president in 1989. However, he now faces the most challenging political landscape since he first came to power in 2003.
His new term, which will begin on January 5, 2027, will be launched under numerous constraints at home and abroad, including hostility from US President Donald Trump (Donald Trump; Trump).
While Trump has not directly endorsed Lula's opponent, Flavio Bolsonaro - he has endorsed right-wing candidates who ultimately won presidential elections in Colombia and Honduras - his administration would almost certainly prefer to see a conservative run the country of 213 million people.
The White House views Latin America as a U.S. sphere of influence, and the Trump administration is eager to bring to power leaders who support its policies, including on defense, security and trade.
The U.S. government is also keen to reduce China's influence in the Western Hemisphere.
Brazil, which is rich in oil and has the world's second-largest reserves of rare earth minerals, is the only major country in South America governed by a non-right-wing leader, and Lula is largely seen as friendly to China.
Flavio Bolsonaro has promised to align Brazil with Washington, while Lula has warned the United States against interfering in the election and insisted that Brazil "will never become anyone's backyard".
But while the White House may be disappointed, Lula's victory will be welcomed by environmentalists. They had worried that a Bolsonaro victory would give Brazil's influential agribusiness and mining industries greater power.
They have pointed to record levels of deforestation and forest fires in the Amazon during the presidency of Bolsonaro's father, Jair Bolsonaro, and argued that looser environmental policies under the younger Bolsonaro could once again lead to the destruction of this critical ecosystem.
Although Lula's supporters were ecstatic about his victory, the election results showed that the country remains deeply divided, with more than 48% of voters choosing Bolsonaro.
In addition to the challenge of uniting such a deeply polarized country, Lula will have to govern with the most right-wing congress in Brazil's democratic era.
Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party (PL) was the party that gained the most in this election.
However, Lula's Workers' Party managed to organize large rallies ahead of the runoff, demonstrating the party's strong grassroots support.
Before the election, Lula described the vote as "a watershed moment for Brazil."
He promised a "new way of governing" to bridge the divide between Brazil's rival political camps, adding in a WhatsApp live broadcast ahead of the election that "the country will never be the same again".
While he offered few details on what the new approach to governance would look like, he insisted he would "unwaveringly fight for a more just country, where everyone has opportunity and where policy is guided by the needs of the people."
Facing a largely hostile Congress, the struggle is likely to be much tougher for the veteran leader - who will be 85 at the end of his fourth term - than he was during his previous three administrations.
Lula: Beijing’s “old friend” in America’s backyard
BBC Chinese reporter Chen Yan
The name Lula is not unfamiliar to China. As a representative of the Brazilian left, Lula has always been willing to develop good relations with China.
In April 2023, he paid a state visit to Beijing. This was his first visit to a country outside the Americas after returning to power after 12 years. Xi Jinping called him an "old friend" during that meeting.
There is another connection between Lula and China: Dilma Rousseff.
During that visit in 2023, Lula made a special trip to Shanghai to attend the inauguration ceremony of Rousseff as president of the New Development Bank. Rousseff is regarded as Lula's political successor. She served as the president of Brazil from 2011 to 2016 and joined the New Development Bank after leaving office.
The bank was established in 2015 by the BRICS countries (BRICs) and is headquartered in Shanghai. Not only that, in September 2024, Xi Jinping awarded Rousseff the "Medal of Friendship" at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. This is China's highest national honor for foreigners, and she is also the only foreigner among this batch of honorees.
Less than two months after the award ceremony, Xi Jinping visited Brazil and was warmly received by Lula. At the welcoming ceremony, Brazilian artists sang "My Motherland" in Chinese. In May 2025, Lula paid another state visit to China. This was his sixth visit to China and his second visit to China during the same term.
Brazil and China have very close trade relations in agriculture (especially soybeans), minerals and other export industries. However, in fact, Lula has always emphasized strategic independence and avoided choosing sides.
During Lula’s tenure, Brazil did not directly join the “One Belt, One Road” initiative. During Xi Jinping's visit to Brazil in November 2024, the two sides signed a cooperation plan to connect the "One Belt, One Road" initiative with Brazil's "Accelerated Growth Plan" and other national development strategies. This shows Lula's pragmatic orientation: he not only hopes to obtain economic benefits through cooperation with China, but also insists on holding the leadership in his own hands.
Chinese capital is also accelerating its entry into Brazil. According to statistics from the Brazil-China Entrepreneurs Committee, China's direct investment in Brazil will increase by 113% year-on-year in 2024, to approximately US$4.2 billion, and Brazil will become China's third largest investment destination in the world; it will increase to US$6.1 billion in 2025, rising to first place. The investment areas have expanded from traditional industries such as petroleum and electricity to new energy vehicles, technology and renewable energy manufacturing. BYD's plant in Camaçari, Bahia, rolled off the company's 14 millionth new energy vehicle in the world in October 2025, and the vehicle was eventually delivered to Lula himself.
This logic also applies to Flavio Bolsonaro, Lula’s opponent in this election. The senator is the eldest son of former President Bolsonaro. Like his father, he emphasizes national security and deepening cooperation with the United States. His family has a close relationship with Trump. He just met Trump in Washington in May this year.
But with the election approaching, Flavio also refused to portray diplomacy as a choice between China and the United States. He made it clear in September that if elected, relations with China would be based on economic and pragmatic principles and "we don't have to choose sides."
