Brazil's first-round presidential vote on October 4, 2026 did not produce a winner with more than half of valid votes, triggering a runoff scheduled for October 25, according to Agência Brasil, the public news agency of Brazil's state communications company EBC. Under Brazilian electoral rules, a candidate must secure more than 50% of valid votes — excluding blank and null ballots — to win outright in the first round; if not, the two most-voted candidates advance to a second round.
Why the vote went to a second round
Agência Brasil notes that, since Brazil's return to democracy, presidential elections have gone to a runoff in every cycle except two: 1994 and 1998, when Fernando Henrique Cardoso won outright in the first round. The October 4 vote followed the same pattern as most previous elections, with no candidate reaching the required majority.
Al Jazeera reported that roughly 160 million Brazilians were registered to vote in the election, which also elected national and state lawmakers and state governors alongside the presidency.
Partial counts pointed to a Lula–Bolsonaro runoff
As polling stations reported results on the evening of October 4, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party (PL) led President Lula of the Workers' Party (PT) in partial counts, according to live tallies published by CNN Portugal and Rio Times Online. With 41.57% of polling stations counted as of 22:38 Brasília time, CNN Portugal's tracker — drawing on official electoral data — showed Bolsonaro at 50.41% of valid votes against Lula's 41.44%, with Bolsonaro leading in 16 states and Lula in 11.
First-round partial count (41.57% of polling stations tallied, Oct. 4 evening)| Candidate | Party | Share of valid votes |
|---|
| Flávio Bolsonaro | PL (Liberal Party) | 50.41% |
|---|
| Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva | PT (Workers' Party) | 41.44% |
|---|
| Augusto Cury | Avante | 2.95% |
|---|
| Ronaldo Caiado | PSD | 2.39% |
|---|
| Renan Santos | Missão | 2.31% |
|---|
Both CNN Portugal and Rio Times Online stressed that Brazil's electoral court had not declared a final result at the time of those updates, and that several states where Lula traditionally performs strongly, including Bahia, were still far from fully counted. An earlier Rio Times Online update, with 36.60% of sections tallied, showed a similar pattern — Bolsonaro at 50.63% and Lula at 41.23% — indicating the overall ranking of the two front-runners held steady as counting progressed, even as the full official tally was not available on the pages reviewed for this report.
How the vote from abroad was cast
Nearly one million Brazilians living outside the country were registered to vote, casting ballots only for president, with polling stations set up in 186 cities across 134 countries, according to CartaCapital. CartaCapital reported that the largest overseas voter bases were in the United States (about 265,000 registered voters), Portugal (about 135,000) and Japan (about 88,000).
CNN Portugal reported that Lula won the overseas vote overall, taking 52.20% against Bolsonaro once more than half of the foreign polling stations had been counted. CartaCapital's country-by-country breakdown showed Lula leading in locations such as Australia, China, Egypt, Estonia and Finland, while Bolsonaro's strongest results came in Japan, Israel and the Philippines.
Background: a rematch of Brazil's political divide
The runoff pits Lula, 80, who is seeking a fourth non-consecutive presidential term, against Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, a senator from the Liberal Party, according to Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera described Flávio Bolsonaro as the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, whom the outlet referred to as a jailed former president.
Al Jazeera reported that pre-election polls had shown the two candidates close to each other heading into the first round, with a CNT/MDA survey putting Lula at 47.3% and Bolsonaro at 43.1% in valid-vote terms, and a Datafolha poll showing a near-even runoff scenario of 47% to 46% in Lula's favor.
What is known and what is not
- Confirmed: the runoff will be held on October 25, 2026, according to Agência Brasil.
- Confirmed: no candidate reached the majority needed to win outright in the first round, which is why a second round was called.
- Reported in partial counts, not a final declared result: Flávio Bolsonaro led Lula by roughly nine points in valid votes as of the evening of October 4, with large parts of the vote still uncounted at that time.
- Not covered in the sources reviewed: the fully certified, 100%-counted first-round result for the presidential race.
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