Brazil's left-wing President Lula wins a fourth term in office, defeating his right-wing challenger Flávio Bolsonaro - here's how he did it
The 80-year-old, who took just under 52% in the run-off vote, thanks cheering supporters in São Paulo who he says "defended Brazilian democracy"
Bolsonaro - who won the first round - says the result is "inexplicable" and calls for it to be annulled - our Latin America editor explains what's happening
His father, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, is currently serving a jail sentence under house arrest for plotting a coup after losing the last election
This election was bitterly fought - and it bucks a wider regional trend towards right-wing leaders, our Latin America editor writes
Follow live coverage from BBC Brasil in Portuguese
Left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeated his right-wing rival Flávio Bolsonaro in the presidential election run-off overnight.
In the first round on 4 October, Bolsonaro had won with 47%, falling short of an outright majority and triggering the second round. In yesterday's voting, Lula came out on top with 51.79% as you can see from the graph below:
Lula won in just under half of the 27 Brazilian states:
Image source, Getty ImagesLula - as head of the newly-founded Workers' Party (PT) - pictured in Rome in 1981 with Lech Walesa, leader of the Polish Solidarity movement
Born into a poor family in 1945, Lula sold peanuts as a child, only learning to read aged 10.
He became a metal worker in his teens, losing a finger in an industrial accident in the 1960s.
His political journey started in the trade union movement, where he was elected head of Metalworkers' Union in 1975. Five years later, he founded the Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores or PT) - Brazil's first major socialist party.
It took him more than two decades to win the presidency, which he first did in 2002.
Lula made social equality a central plank of his early premiership, funnelling billions into grant programmes like the Bolsa Familia.
He was jailed in 2018 following a huge bribery scandal, dubbed Operation Car Wash, and served more than 18 months.
His convictions were overturned by a Supreme Court Judge in 2021, allowing him to run for and secure a third term as president in 2022.
Image source, Getty ImagesProtesters gathered outside Meta's headquarters in Sao Paulo, calling for an end to "digital censorship" and sporting banners that read: "Brazil decides Brazil"
Social media has played a significant role in Brazil's presidential elections.
On Tuesday, Meta's oversight board, external said it had found "enforcement failures" in the moderation of content relating to Brazil's presidential election.
The statement followed allegations by President Lula's campaign team, which says the company – which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – had favoured Bolsonaro.
The oversight board found Meta had excessively used anti-fraud policies against Lula's ad accounts. The failure, the body says, "should have been escalated to an internal team of expert reviewers".
Meta has rejected claims of political bias.
Image source, AFP via Getty ImagesRight-wing senator-elect Marcel Van Hattem is a close ally of Flávio Bolsonaro and was in the room with him when the results were declared.
"He was upset, but I think he was much more than upset," Hattem tells BBC World Service's Newsday programme.
He says Bolsonaro had a sense of "indignation" about the Supreme Court's decision to extend voting by two hours. As a reminder, both sides requested extensions to voting hours for different reasons – read more here.
Hattem says he would like to see the whole election run again, and pushed back on the idea that this could be undemocratic or motivated by unhappiness with the result.
Electoral law experts contacted by BBC News Brasil say the chances of the election being annulled are remote.
Image source, Bloomberg via Getty ImagesIn the first round of voting - on 4 October - President Lula came in second place with 45%, behind Flávio Bolsonaro, who received 47%.
The 2.2 million vote difference in favour of Bolsonaro gave way to a 4.4 million vote advantage for Lula in the second round.
These were some of the key shifts behind Lula's victory:
Image source, EPA/ ShutterstockIndia's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he looks forward to "working closely" with Lula
World leaders are still sharing their reactions to Lula’s win, here’s the latest we’ve seen:
You can read more about how other Latin American leaders have reacted to the victory here.
Image source, Getty ImagesWhile Lula's supporters are ecstatic about his victory, the result shows that the country remains deeply divided, with more than 48% of voters choosing Bolsonaro.
In addition to the challenge of uniting such a deeply polarised country, Lula will have to govern alongside the most right-wing Congress in Brazil's democratic era.
Before the election, Lula promised to bridge the gap between Brazil's opposing political poles with "a new way of governing", adding in a WhatsApp livestream before the election that "this country will never be the same again".
While he provided little detail as to what the new way of governing would entail, he insisted he would "remain firm in the fight for a more just country, with opportunities for all and policies directed at the needs of the population".
With a largely hostile Congress, this fight just may prove much harder for the veteran leader - who will be 85 by the end of his fourth term - than in his three previous terms in office.
As we have been reporting, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva earlier addressed his supporters in São Paulo and thousands could be seen cheering and celebrating in the streets.
Meanwhile, it was a different story for supporters of Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of the former president Jair - who has so far refused to recognise Lula's victory.
Image source, ReutersAccording to Brazil's Superior Electoral Count, Bolsonaro won 48.21% of the votes, compared to Lula's 51.79%
Image source, EPA/ ShutterstockBolsonaro - who was expected to give a victory speech - told his supporters the result was "impossible,” saying it should be annulled
Image source, ReutersLula's supporters turned up in their thousands overnight to celebrate his victory, winning a fourth term in office
Image source, ReutersSeveral media outlets in Brazil have described the result as a "historic turnaround" for Lula
Image source, ReutersLeaders across Europe have been waking up to the news of Lula’s victory and sharing their reactions.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen congratulates President Lula, saying that "democracy and multilateralism have won in Brazil".
She says Europe's partnership with Brazil is thriving and the countries will work for open trade, strong climate ambitions and a "rules-based order".
French President Emmanuel Macron says France and Brazil have "much to build together" and should work "in service of a more just world".
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez calls it a "great victory," saying "the comeback of global progressivism has just begun", adding: "What has happened in Brazil will happen in Spain”.
Justin Rowlatt
Climate editor
Image source, ReutersThe Amazon rainforest in Manaus
Satellite data from Brazil’s space agency, INPE, which has tracked Amazon clear-cutting since 1988, shows 3,335 km² (1,287 square miles) cleared in the year to July, 42% less than the year before.
It is a dramatic turnaround.
Lula’s predecessor was Jair Bolsonaro, father of Flávio, his opponent in Sunday’s runoff.
Bolsonaro pushed to open the Amazon to development, weakened the Ibama environmental agency and fired INPE’s director after disputing its data.
Clearing during his administration totalled nearly 45,600 km², against about 24,600 km² under Lula, according to INPE data. Environmental groups credit restored enforcement for much of the decline.
Flávio Bolsonaro had pledged to end illegal deforestation by 2029 but offered little detail on how he would achieve it.
The decline slows the loss but does not stop it.
Since satellite monitoring began in 1988, an area of Amazon rainforest approaching the size of Spain has been cleared.
Image source, Bloomberg via Getty ImagesSpeaking from outside his home in Brasília after the election result was called, opposition candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, who had won the first round, refused to recognise Lula's victory in the run-off vote.
He told his assembled supporters that the result was "impossible" and "inexplicable".
Bolsonaro is calling for an annulment of the election, saying that "the rules of the game were changed" - referring to the decision of the Supreme Court to extend voting by two hours.
Before the result was declared, both sides had asked for extensions to voting hours, for different reasons.
Electoral law experts contacted by BBC News Brasil say the chances of the election being annulled are remote given, for example, Lula's margin of victory by 4.4 million votes.
Vanessa Buschschlüter
Latin America editor
Image source, Getty ImagesLuiz Inácio Lula da Silvahas been president three times already.
When he started his third term in office in 2023, he vowed it would be his last, and yet his party endorsed him as their candidate again this year, even though he will turn 81 two days after the election.
Even backers of his party will acknowledge that he achieved more in his first two terms – from January 2003 to December 2010 – than in this most recent four years in office.
He was widely praised for lifting millions out of poverty with the help of a cash-transfer programme called Bolsa Família and left office on 1 January 2011 with record approval ratings of over 80%.
But his political career suffered serious setbacks in the following years – he was convicted of corruption and sent to jail for more than 18 months.
Those convictions were annulled in 2021, leaving Lula free to run for the presidency in the 2022 election, in which he beat Jair Bolsonaro.
There is no doubt he remains a towering figure in the left. But while his supporters described him ahead of the 2022 election as the "saviour of the Amazon", praising his commitment to protecting the rainforest, some environmentalists have been critical of some of his recent actions.
His support for exploratory oil drilling in offshore waters near the mouth of the Amazon in particular has drawn criticism.
Lula insists that he remains committed to eventually phasing out fossil fuels and argues that oil revenues are key to financing Brazil's transition to clean energy.
Mimi Swaby
Global affairs reporter
Image source, Getty ImagesTrump and Jair Bolsonaro in 2020
We have yet to hear Donald Trump's reaction to the election result. There was no secret that Senator Flávio Bolsonaro had US backing, following in the footsteps of his father Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula defeating Flávio Bolsonaro keeps Latin America's biggest economy at odds with Washington.
Flávio Bolsonaro campaigned on an iron fist tackling crime. It's not a new strategy. It's part of a playbook we have seen across Latin America which has voted in a string of right-wing leaders on this very promise. All strong allies of Donald Trump.
One of Bolsonaro's pledges if he won was that Brazil would join the Shield of the Americas, a US-led security initiative against so called "narco-terrorism". A term echoed by Bolsonaro junior on the campaign trail.
Flávio Bolsonaro met with Trump in May at the White House to shore up support as scandal dented his popularity with voters.
And Washington has played a heavy hand in the Brazilian politics. Its policies included designating Brazilian gangs as terrorist groups and imposing sanctions against the Brazilian Supreme Court Justice who spearheaded the investigation into Jair Bolsonaro.
Former right-wing leader Jair Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year prison sentence in connection with a coup attempt after his re-election loss in 2022.
Branca Lessa de Sa
Reporting from Brasília
During his victory speech in São Paulo, Lula thanked a congressman named André Janones for his "exponential" role in the campaign. But who is Janones?
The 42-year-old politician from Minas Gerais is the founder of a viral Whatsapp channel named "Lula's Army", and has led a highly organised and effective online campaign in support of the president.
The Whatsapp channel became one of the Lula campaign's main digital mobilisation tools in the last few weeks, aiming to circulate content favourable to the president.
In regular videos and messages, Janones would urge participants – who he referred to as "soldiers" – to share posts and invite new members. Shortly before the runoff this Sunday, the channel surpassed ten million followers.
In his speech in São Paulo, Lula said that this election had taught him many lessons; among them, the power of social media.
"I want to tell you all that we will allow people to participate more in our decision-making, and that digital communication will play a big role in my new government," he said.
Image source, ReutersIf you're just joining us, here's a recap of how the run-off vote in Brazil's presidential election unfolded:
Vinícius de S. Mendes
BBC News Brasil, in São Paulo
Image source, ReutersFlávio Bolsonaro has called for the election result to be annulled, but the chances of this happening are remote, according to electoral law experts contacted by BBC News Brasil.
Fernando Neisser, en electoral law expert at the Institute of Lawyers of São Paulo (Iasp), said that it would be "difficult from a legal standpoint" and would depend on the "narrative" his lawyers put forward.
He added that since the margin of votes between the two candidates was relatively large - with Lula getting 4.4 million votes more than Bolsonaro - it seemed unlikely there would be an annulment.
An added complication is that the dates of the presidential election in Brazil are fixed and determined by the constitution, says electoral law expert Alberto Rollo.
"We can't change the constitution. We can't say say 'it didn't count, we'll do it next week, or on 15 November, or 30 November'," he told BBC News Brasil.
Several of the experts consulted said that fact that the Bolsonaro camp had officially requested that voting be extended would make it hard for them to now use the extension as grounds for an annulment.
Here's what you need to know about President Lula da Silva, the winner of Brazil's presidential election, and his challenger, Flávio Bolsonaro:
Image source, ReutersLuiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Image source, EPA/ShutterstockFlávio Bolsonaro
Ione Wells
Reporting from Brasília
Image source, ReutersBrazil's Supreme Court Justice Kassio Nunes
While Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign have complained about how this result played out, it is worth a reminder that both campaigns complained about disruption to voting and requested that polling was extended.
President Lula’s campaign had raised the issue of public transport issues in key cities like Salvador and Sao Paulo, while Senator Bolsonaro’s campaign had said bad weather was affecting turnout in several states.
The problem was highlighted earlier in the day, but initially the president of the Supreme Electoral Court did not take action. As a result, the decision to extend voting then came just after polls were meant to close - meaning some polling stations had already shut and were then not able to re-open.
The Supreme Court judge Cristiano Zanin, who is a former lawyer for President Lula, ordered the extension in the absence of a decision by the court’s president.
The court president Kassio Nunes Marques, who was appointed by Jair Bolsonaro, later confirmed the victory of President Lula and affirmed that the extension of polling hours didn’t cause any problems for the count or electoral process.
Incumbent Brazilian President Lula pulled off a remarkable turnaround after placing behind his challenger Flavio Bolsonaro in the first round of the election.
BBC correspondent Ione Wells is in Brasília to explain how he did it.
Watch: How President Lula turned it around to beat Flávio Bolsonaro
Thousands of Lula's supporters have spilled out onto the streets of São Paulo, celebrating his win - here are the latest pictures from the scene.
Image source, Reuters
Image source, Reuters