Brazil's Supreme Court Extends Runoff Voting by Two Hours After Lula and Bolsonaro Both Ask

Since Flávio Bolsonaro edged President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva 47% to 45% in the Oct. 4 first round, the race has stayed knife-edge. Today, Sunday, Oct. 25, the runoff itself hit a snag at closing time.

Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin ordered voting extended nationwide until 7 p.m. Brasília time. The order came minutes after polls were due to close at 5 p.m.

Two campaigns, two reasons

Both candidates had asked the electoral court for more time. Lula's campaign pointed to problems with buses that carry voters to polling places in nine states, according to the Associated Press. Bolsonaro's campaign cited heavy rain in the south.

Kássio Nunes, the Supreme Court justice who also heads the electoral court, told reporters in Brasília that some cities were indeed short of buses. He did not say publicly whether hours would be extended. The decision came from Zanin instead. The Superior Electoral Court, known as the TSE, had issued no statement on it as of the latest reporting.

The extension arrived so close to the deadline that some polling stations may already have shut. How many voters were turned away before the order, if any, has not been reported.

The suppression allegation

Lula's camp went further than complaining about logistics. His campaign alleged that authorities in several cities were restricting voter access to public transportation. Allegations of attempted voter suppression in at least 10 states have circulated, and some Lula supporters suspect the disruptions were deliberate.

Lula himself told reporters he had never complained about an election he took part in, win or lose. "But this time something abominable is happening," he said.

No evidence has been presented that the bus shortages were intentional. Nunes acknowledged shortages but did not attribute them to anyone's design. Bolsonaro's campaign has not been quoted on the transit claim. Its own request for more time rested on weather.

A claim that transit was throttled to keep particular voters home is serious and checkable. Which municipalities ran reduced service, who ordered it, and whether the pattern tracks partisan lines are all questions the electoral authorities can answer with records.

Count paused

Brazil's electoral authorities began counting ballots and then paused, Bloomberg reported. France 24 also reported the pause. No official explanation had been given at last report.

The pause matters because of the machines. Brazil votes electronically on about 499,000 units that do not connect to the internet. According to the TSE, the software is open to inspection by parties and universities for 11 months before being signed and sealed. The TSE says there has been no proven fraud since the machines debuted in 1996. Each machine prints a tally at closing and posts it outside the polling place with a QR code, so anyone can check it against the national count.

The machines print no paper ballot for each voter. Fox News noted that this is the type of paperless system President Donald Trump has vowed to scrap at home. The same system's biometric voter ID was cited as a model in Trump's 2025 elections executive order. In the first round, Brazil knew its runoff matchup less than four hours after polls closed.

What the runoff decides

Bolsonaro beat Lula by more than 2.2 million votes in the first round. More than 33 million of nearly 160 million registered voters did not turn out. Polls going into today showed the two essentially tied.

The stakes are concrete. Bolsonaro has said his first act as president would be to pardon his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence, under house arrest, for the 2022 coup attempt. Lula is seeking a fourth, non-consecutive term and has called this his final battle.

The right already had a strong night in the Oct. 4 legislative races. Jovem Pan reported that Bolsonaro's Liberal Party went from 15 to 28 Senate seats. Right-wing parties would collectively hold 49 of 81 seats from February, enough for constitutional amendments, according to Poder 360. Lula's Workers' Party kept its nine.

Washington's shadow

The U.S. has been a subject of the campaign. Trump hosted Flávio Bolsonaro at the White House in May and praised him on Truth Social on June 2. The administration has imposed tariffs on Brazil after a U.S. Trade Representative investigation found certain Brazilian trade policies "unreasonable."

Brazil's government denied visas in July to two State Department officials. A Brazilian official told Reuters the government suspected the visit was meant to influence the election and undermine confidence in the voting system. The State Department rejected that, saying the officials planned routine meetings on election integrity, religious freedom and free expression.

In a Sept. 24 letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 30 House Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders accused the administration of undermining Brazil's democratic institutions. They asked whether Washington would recognize certified results.

Eduardo Bolsonaro, Flávio's brother, spoke to supporters at a Miami polling site, calling for judicial reform and the release of "political prisoners." Courts convicted him for lobbying for U.S. sanctions on Brazil during his father's trial. Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued an arrest warrant earlier this month. Eduardo has lived in the U.S. since 2025, and experts say extradition is unlikely.

What comes next

Voting is set to close at 7 p.m. Brasília time, or 6 p.m. Eastern. The TSE has not said when the paused count resumes or when it expects to announce a result. With a first-round gap of two points, the outcome of the paused count and any challenge to the extension are now the open questions.