Source : BRICS NEWS
BRASÍLIA, October 25, 2026 – A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has extended voting by two hours in the presidential runoff between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and right-wing senator Flávio Bolsonaro, BRICS News reported, in a highly unusual late intervention after both campaigns complained that voters were struggling to reach the polls.
BRICS News reported the decision in a post on X on Sunday, stating that a “Brazilian Supreme Court justice extends voting by two hours in presidential runoff between Bolsonaro and Lula”. The Bolsonaro on the ballot is Flávio, the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro.
https://x.com/BRICSinfo/status/2114451296678035761
Justice Cristiano Zanin of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) ordered polling stations across the country to keep receiving votes until 7pm Brasília time instead of closing at 5pm as scheduled, Brazilian news portal G1 reported. In his order, Zanin cited “the gravity of the facts reported”, which he said reached the court at 4.32pm, and “the evident urgency of the measure”, instructing the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to carry it out.
Zanin later clarified that the extension applied only to polling stations that were still open when the decision was issued, G1 reported. The count of votes, which had already begun, was paused as a result.
The ruling followed a petition from Lula’s coalition citing problems with public transport, including reduced bus fleets, in at least nine states: São Paulo, Alagoas, Pernambuco, Roraima, Piauí, Paraíba, Pará, Paraná and Rio de Janeiro. That request built on an earlier one covering three municipalities in Bahia: Salvador, Feira de Santana and Lauro de Freitas. “What we want is an election done honestly and with everyone having their right to vote,” Lula told reporters, according to the BBC.
Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign separately asked the TSE for a two-hour extension in municipalities in Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, São Paulo and Santa Catarina that had been hit by heavy rain, flooding and, in some places, power cuts at polling stations, G1 reported.
The order caused confusion on the ground. Several poll workers told BBC Brasil they had already been dismissed when the extension was announced, while a school principal in São Paulo said his polling station had closed and issued its ballot box reports before being told to stay open. The BBC said the move could push back results by several hours.
The runoff follows a first round on October 4 in which Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, a senator since 2019, narrowly beat Lula by just over 2.2 million votes but fell short of the 50 per cent of valid votes needed to win outright, according to the BBC. It was the first time Lula had finished second in a first round since he was first elected president in 2002. More than 158 million Brazilians are eligible to vote.
The contest is a rematch of sorts of the 2022 runoff, when Lula beat Jair Bolsonaro by 1.8 percentage points. The former president, convicted of plotting a coup, is under house arrest and barred from running. Flávio Bolsonaro has courted US President Donald Trump, who told reporters on Sunday that he was watching the election, the BBC reported.
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