Lula extends lead to 2.8 percentage points over Flávio Bolsonaro in Brazil

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva extended his lead over opposition senator Flávio Bolsonaro to 2.80 percentage points during the vote count of the presidential runoff election held this Sunday, October 25, consolidating his position at the head of the partial count.

According to the results shown in an update from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Lula, candidate of the Workers’ Party (PT), obtained 51.40% of the valid votes, equivalent to 53,172,522 ballots, while Bolsonaro, representative of the Liberal Party (PL), reached 48.60%, with 50,285,156 votes.

The difference between both candidates stands at 2,887,366 votes, with 83.69% of the count completed, corresponding to 417,813 of the 499,248 electoral sections enabled for the process.

Lula increases his lead as the count progresses

The new count reflects a significant widening of the gap between the candidates, after the Brazilian president recorded a lead of just 1.10 percentage points when 60.85% of the precincts had been counted.

At that moment, Lula reached 50.55% of the votes, compared to 49.45% for Bolsonaro, in a day characterized by changes in the positions of both contenders during the early stages of the count.

With the progress of the tally, the gap between the two candidacies increased to 2.80 percentage points, while 16.31% of the polling stations remained to be counted.

More than 103 million valid votes counted

The data presented also indicate that 103,457,678 valid votes had been counted, with an electoral turnout of 81% and an abstention rate of 19%.

Likewise, blank votes represented 1.11% and null votes 2.08% of the total recorded up to that moment.

Although Lula’s lead widened as the count progressed, the results remained subject to the conclusion of the official tally, which will determine who will hold the Presidency of Brazil during the 2027-2030 term.