Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won re-election on Sunday in a dramatic comeback after trailing in the first round, extending the rule of a government that has overseen record Chinese investment.
The Superior Electoral Court said Lula had 51.76 per cent of valid votes against 48.24 per cent for right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, with 99.83 per cent votes counted. No candidate who trailed after the first round had won a run-off since Brazil adopted the system in 1989.
But the outcome could still be contested after a Supreme Court justice ordered polls to stay open for two more hours, minutes after voting officially ended at 5pm. No court had extended voting in Brazil before.
The order came from Justice Cristiano Zanin, who was Lula’s lawyer before joining the court in 2023. He acted on a complaint from Lula’s campaign that cities in Bahia state run by allies of Flavio Bolsonaro had kept buses in depots and that poorer voters could not reach the polls.