Elections in Brazil 2026, LIVE: Lula vs. Flávio Bolsonaro and the latest news, vote by vote

Elections in Brazil 2026, LIVE: Lula vs. Flávio Bolsonaro and the latest news, vote by vote The latest polls show a tight picture between the current president and the opposition leader; more than 158 million Brazilians are eligible to vote - Polls anticipate Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro emerge with 42% and 38% respectively - More than 158 million Brazilians are eligible to vote - The candidates closed their campaigns this Saturday - In case of runoff, the scheduled date is October 25th Live Authors (6) The first round shows a polarized election between Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro. Although the polls reflect a tight situation, betting markets have shifted in favor of the former president's son. At first glance, the market consensus does not expect major changes in case of Lula's re-election, but it does foresee a revaluation of assets in case of a Bolsonaro victory. This is a central theme for portfolios with exposure to Brazil, but also impact on Argentina. Why does Lula da Silva lack a finger? The story of the accident that marked his life On Sunday, October 4th, the presidential elections are held in Brazil, with Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro as the candidates with the highest vote intentions. As Brazilians attend the elections, a doubt resurfaced that catches everyone's attention: the leader of the Workers' Party has nine fingers. In 1964, Lula da Silva was 17 years old and worked in a screw factory in São Paulo. During the night shift, a mechanical lathe crushed the little finger of his left hand and, consequently, the doctors amputated it. Lula and Bolsonaro's words after voting "Our internal polls show that we surpassed the first round a long time ago," said Bolsonaro after voting in Rio de Janeiro, his home state, accompanied by his mother, Rogéria Bolsonaro, a candidate for deputy. An hour later, Lula voted in a school in Sao Bernardo do Campo, on the outskirts of São Paulo. "What is at stake is the future of Brazil," said the president, surrounded by other candidates from his camp. Victoria Tolosa Paz: "A lot is at stake for the destiny of our country today" From São Paulo, the Peronist deputy is closely following the presidential elections in Brazil, accompanying the Workers' Party in an election she considers strategic for the future of the region and Argentina. In the lead-up, she participated with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Fernando Haddad in the "Caminhada da Vitória," a mobilization in the streets of São Paulo in support of the PT candidate. "We are accompanying this great day for the Brazilian people. Yesterday we lived a mobilization with a lot of positive energy, joy, and with a Lula who is still hope for this people," Tolosa Paz stated in dialogue with Radio Con Vos from São Paulo, hours before the election closure. The deputy also highlighted the measures adopted by the Brazilian government in recent days and maintained that there is a strategic view on the country's development, production, and export capacity. For Tolosa Paz, the Brazilian election goes beyond the borders of that country. "A lot is at stake for the destiny of our country today," she affirmed, and emphasized that Brazil constitutes the main regional power and a central actor for thinking about Argentine development. In this sense, she pointed to the need to strengthen productive linkages, energy integration, and opportunities linked to agribusiness, gas, and renewable energies. "We always look at how to empower Brazil and we also have a lot to learn from its development process," the deputy stated, who also valued Lula's political capacity to build broad agreements and maintain an alliance that allowed him to return to government in 2022. These are all the candidates for the 2026 Brazilian elections The keys to understanding what is at stake in the Brazilian elections In the race for the presidency, although different political spaces were presented, two candidates stand out with the highest vote intentions: the current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the leader of the Liberal Party Flávio Bolsonaro. Although both candidates concentrate the electorate's preferences, neither has enough votes to win in the first round. Voters must attend the voting day to elect the next president and vice president. Furthermore, in 26 states, governors are elected and the entire Chamber of Deputies and a third of the Senate are renewed. When do the elections close in Brazil Brazil's electoral system establishes a specific schedule for the democratic day on this Sunday, October 4th. According to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the polling stations open at 8 a.m. and close at 5:00 p.m. in the official time of Brasília. This time frame is uniformly applied throughout the national territory. It should be noted that there is no time difference between Argentina and Brazil. Brazil celebrates "unpredictable" elections "Unpredictable," this is how the Brazilian press defines the elections taking place this Sunday. The elections are decisive for the country, where the electorate chooses the next president and vice president for a four-year term, as well as renewing the entire Chamber of Deputies, a third of the Senate, and the governorships in 26 states. The current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, competes against Senator Flávio Bolsonaro and other candidates. The electoral panorama reflects a technical parity, while recent polls from AtlasIntel/Bloomberg show a minimal difference of only 0.1 percentage points in a potential second round, with 47.7% for Bolsonaro against 47.6% for Lula. Since neither formula seems to reach the 50% of valid votes required for a direct victory, Brazilian legislation provides for the runoff instance for October 25th, the date on which the same electronic voting method will be applied. Electoral crimes: 28 people arrested in Brazil According to the digital portal O globo, G1, the Brazilian Federal Police opened three investigations and officially registered six incidents to investigate the practice of electoral crimes this Sunday morning. In total, 28 people were transferred to police stations. At the beginning of October, the Federal Police had opened 1,226 investigations. The falsification of documents and fraud are the main causes of these cases. In the weeks preceding the first round of the Brazilian presidential election, the international advisory team of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva coordinated three calls to foreign presidents: the first to Xi Jinping of China at the end of July; then the Russian president Vladimir Putin at the beginning of August; and finally, on August 21st, the Brazilian head of state spent about an hour and twenty minutes talking on the phone with Donald Trump. In the three calls – the president and candidate for a fourth term revealed – Lula told the leaders that it was necessary to make the United Nations Security Council more efficient in the face of major global armed conflicts, a space where Brazil seeks to occupy a permanent seat since Lula was first elected in 2002. Essentially, he referred to the wars between Ukraine and Russia, and the dangerous scenario unfolding in the Middle East. Voting in Argentina The Brazilian Embassy in Buenos Aires, located at Cerrito 1350, serves as a polling center in Argentina during the hours of 8 to 17, provided the voter meets the registration requirement before May 7th, the deadline imposed by the Electoral Court. Lula da Silva's vote Just after 9:30, the other main presidential candidate in Brazil, Lula da Silva, from the Workers' Party (PT), approached to vote at his school in the state of São Paulo. After casting his vote, he gave a brief speech in which he called for tranquility, highlighted the importance of democracy and Photo with Lula shared by Massa 🇧🇷 🇦🇷 ❤️ pic.twitter.com/9qwRzkST1d Voted Flávio Bolsonaro Shortly after 8 o'clock, when the polling stations opened throughout Brazil, the candidate for president of the Liberal Party Flávio Bolsonaro approached to vote in Rio de Janeiro. When asked by LN+ about the support he received from Argentine President Javier Milei, he replied that "he will invite" the neighboring country in case he wins the elections against his main opponent, Lula da Silva. Polling stations opened At 8 a.m., the polling stations opened for eligible Brazilian citizens to come and vote and choose who will become the next president. The elections close at 5 p.m. Brazil goes to the polls in a borderline election, in the shadow of Trump and with the region at stake BRASILIA.- Brazil arrives at the polls this Sunday as the missing piece in a regional map that, election after election, has been colored to the right. After Bolivia, Chile, Peru, and Colombia, the South American giant defines whether the president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will get a fourth term at 80 years old and remain as the last great dam of the left, or if Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of the former president imprisoned for orchestrating a coup, completes the turn under the watchful eye of the United States. That gaze stopped being a metaphor in the last hours. On Friday, the United States closed its embassy in Brasília and its consulates in the country due to a supposed bomb threat, which the Federal Police investigated without finding elements confirming the risk. Lula's campaign asked the electoral justice system to investigate the episode as possible external interference and attributed the order to the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. Donald Trump, who had defined the election as "very important" for his country on Thursday, warned a day later that he would follow it closely. What do the latest polls say about the presidential elections in Brazil This Sunday, October 4th, Brazilians are heading towards a new presidential election where the central duel will be decided between the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of the Workers' Party (PT), and the opponent Flávio Bolsonaro -of the Liberal Party (PL)-, who concentrate most of the citizens' voting intention. WASHINGTON.- In the cascade of advertising announcements that flooded Brazilian media in the run-up to Sunday's elections, one launched by the campaign of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva targeted his main rival, Flavio Bolsonaro, for being "Donald Trump's candidate" and warned that what the White House chief actually seeks with that support is "to colonize Brazil, take our riches, steal our future and leave us in misery." SAN PAULO.– The arrival at the intersection of Avenida Paulista and Rua Augusta, in the center of São Paulo, was almost impossible for thousands of people – more than 500,000 according to organizers – who crowded the morning of Saturday to wait for the arrival of the President of Brazil and candidate of the Workers' Party (PT), Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in the presidential elections on Sunday. When, around 11:20 a.m., the leftist leader managed to get close to the truck that would take him on his last campaign act in the São Paulo capital, the clamor that still arouses the veteran leader was felt. How to check the polling location in Argentina Those who have completed the previous steps must present the issued title and relevant documentation on the day of voting, at the indicated time and place: - General elections: Sunday, October 4th from 8 to 5 p.m. - Second round: Sunday, October 25th from 8 to 5 p.m. - Location: Brazilian Embassy in Buenos Aires, Cerrito 1350, CABA Step-by-step to vote from Argentina Electoral services are requested through the online system Título Net Exterior, developed and maintained by the Electoral Court. To obtain the document, it is necessary to download the application, at this link. In this instance, you can choose between: obtaining a first voter registration card, transferring the voter registration, updating data, and regularizing a canceled voter registration card. It should be noted that all options were available until May 7th and are no longer available. Brazilian regulations state that in election years, "the review can only be requested up to 151 days before the election date, as the electoral census closes at the beginning of this period." How to vote from Argentina for the presidential elections in Brazil Elections abroad are organized by the Electoral Court of Brasília and are held in other countries with the support of the Consulates and Embassies of Brazil. The Electoral Code stipulates a minimum of 30 voters as a condition for establishing polling stations abroad. Preferably, the polling stations will operate in the premises of embassies, consular offices, or places where the Brazilian government provides services. What will be the mode of suffrage In the presidential elections, the electronic ballot box will be used, which consists of two terminals: - The terminal of the electoral authority, on which the voter is identified and authorized to vote (in some models, those that verify the voter's identity through biometric data). - The voter's terminal, on which the vote is recorded numerically. What are the conditions for a runoff and when the vote would take place In Brazil, if no candidate obtains more than 50% of the valid votes in the first round, the two most voted candidates proceed to a runoff scheduled for October 25th. In a potential second round, Lula registered 46% and Bolsonaro 45%, in a technical tie. Who are the presidential candidates The following are the candidates who will compete in the general elections of October, as indicated by the official website of the Brazilian government: | Candidate | Party | |---|---| Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva | Workers' Party (PT) | Flávio Bolsonaro | Liberal Party (PL) | Augusto Cury | Advance Ronaldo Caiado | Social Democratic Party (PSD) | Romeu Zema | Novo Party Renan Santos | Missão Movement Hertz Dias | Unified Socialist Workers' Party Edmilson Costa | Brazilian Communist Party Clariana Barao | Christian Democracy Pablo Marçal | Brazilian Labor Renovation Party Rui Costa Pimenta | Labor Cause Party Wilson Grassi | Democrat Samara Martins | Popular Unity What is elected in Brazil Voters must attend the voting day to elect the next president and vice president, who will command the country's destiny for the next four years. Furthermore, in 26 states, governors are elected and the entire Chamber of Deputies and a third of the Senate are renewed.