Brazil's presidential election is headed to a runoff after Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of jailed former president Jair Bolsonaro, finished ahead of incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Sunday's first round of voting.
With nearly all votes counted, Flavio Bolsonaro took about 47% of valid votes, roughly 56 million ballots, against Lula's 45%, or about 53.7 million — a margin of around 2.3 million votes. Neither candidate reached the 50% threshold needed to win outright, sending the race to a runoff on October 25.
The result stunned pollsters, who had shown Lula narrowly ahead or tied heading into election day. Bolsonaro, a 45-year-old senator named as the Liberal Party's candidate by his father from prison last December, appeared to have won over late-deciding anti-Lula voters. His father is serving a 27-year sentence over a 2022 coup plot, and Bolsonaro is a known ally of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Lula, 80, is seeking a fourth term as president. He acknowledged he had expected an outright victory and promised to launch a new campaign on Monday.
Brazil's electronic voting system delivered the result within hours of polls closing at 5 p.m. Brasilia time, in an election with some 158 to 160 million registered voters. The winner's new term begins on January 5, 2027.
