Bolsonaro's Liberal Party Recognizes Lula's Win While Flávio Surrenders Passports and Keeps Annulment Threat Alive

Since Lula da Silva won Brazil's Oct. 25 runoff by roughly 4.4 million votes and Trump called the contest "rigged" without evidence, the Bolsonaro camp has split on what to do next.

On Monday, Oct. 26, Valdemar Costa Neto, president of Flávio Bolsonaro's Liberal Party (PL), issued a statement accepting the outcome. "We recognise the presidential election results, as proclaimed by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE)," the party said. It added that the concerns raised "need to be sufficiently addressed within a balanced and democratic political debate."

Flávio has not formally conceded. He has called the result "unacceptable" and said on election night, "I will request that these elections be annulled." Since the party statement he has not commented publicly on the election, though he described himself in a separate statement as the "leadership of the opposition."

The numbers behind the dispute

Official results gave Lula 64,256,232 votes and Bolsonaro 59,826,041, or 51.79% to 48.21%. Reuters put invalid votes at nearly 4.2 million.

The fight centers on Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin's order extending voting by two hours nationwide. It came three minutes before polls were due to close, and some stations had already shut. Zanin acted on a request from the Lula campaign, which cited bus problems in São Paulo and Salvador. Bolsonaro's campaign had separately asked for more time because of heavy rain in the south.

Bolsonaro points out that Zanin was Lula's former lawyer. He says the rules were changed mid-game and that he cannot know how many votes he lost where polls had already closed. "It's inexplicable that what happened actually happened," he said. He also alleged his poll watchers were removed from secure counting rooms. No evidence for that allegation has been presented in public.

The scale of the extension is now measurable. Insper professor Pedro Burgos analyzed electoral records and found fewer than 35,000 votes, about 0.03% of the total, were cast in the extra two hours. TSE president Kassio Nunes Marques has said the extension did not affect the result. Legal experts say Bolsonaro faces a high bar to invalidate the election.

Elon Musk posted Monday that the "math doesn't add up." He did not say which numbers he disputed.

Trump's remarks and the pushback

Trump told reporters Monday the vote "looked terrible," and added, "I didn't take sides, but it looked like another rigged election, frankly." He also said, "The extension given was very strange." He offered no evidence of fraud.

Vice President Geraldo Alckmin answered in a TV interview with Rede Vanguarda, calling Trump's remarks "totally wrong" and "unfounded." Lula, in his victory speech, called the outcome "a defeat for denialism and lies."

Trump did not endorse Bolsonaro before the vote. Reuters has reported, based on its own reporting, that State Department officials led a campaign to return the Bolsonaros to power.

Passports and the criminal cases

In a video Monday, Bolsonaro said federal police asked him to surrender his passports and that he is now barred from leaving Brazil. He said the order came from a Supreme Court justice and rested on a comment by his brother Eduardo, who lives in the United States. Eduardo told a U.S. podcast two days before the election that "if my brother does not win, I am in favor that he would leave the country."

Flávio said he would comply. "I never had any intention of leaving the country," he said. "I will surrender my passports and defend myself against this travesty."

Brazilian police are investigating Flávio over alleged corruption tied to the financing of "Dark Horse," a biopic about his father. No charges have been announced in that case. His father, Jair Bolsonaro, is under house arrest after receiving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup following his 2022 loss to Lula. Flávio visited him Monday.

Media reports said Pablo Souza, a transportation official in Salvador, was arrested Sunday in connection with the bus problems. The reports did not establish the details of any alleged wrongdoing.

What is still open

As of Monday morning, the PL had not filed a formal annulment request, and TSE ministers were reported by Jovem Pan, citing unnamed sources, to consider the election settled. Whether Flávio files on his own after his party accepted the result is unanswered. The party's insistence that the "issues raised" be "properly clarified" leaves the voting-extension question on the table, even as the 35,000-vote figure sits against a 4.4 million-vote margin.