Lula Wins

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil's presidential runoff Sunday, reversing a first-round defeat to beat Flávio Bolsonaro, the Guardian reported.

Electoral authorities declared Lula the winner, DW reported, citing the country's electronic voting system. Kassio Nunes Marques, president of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court, told the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo that an official announcement was expected between 8:30 and 9 p.m. local time, DW reported.

Brazil elects its president by simple majority. No electoral college exists, the Guardian reported. Neither candidate cleared that bar on Oct. 4. That sent Lula and Bolsonaro, a lawyer and former senator from Rio de Janeiro, into Sunday's runoff. Bolsonaro had led the first round. His father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after losing to Lula in 2022. He had endorsed his son's campaign, the Guardian reported.

Brazil's Supreme Court extended voting by two hours, until 7 p.m. local time. Both campaigns had raised complaints, DW reported. Lula's team said bus service had been disrupted in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, keeping some voters from reaching polling stations. Lula put the number at 40% of the city's buses pulled from service, a figure DW said matched local reports of 75 buses blocked from leaving garages. "We are asking the Supreme Court to extend the electoral process so that those who were effectively barred from voting ... can still cast their votes," Lula told reporters, according to DW, which cited the AFP news agency. Bolsonaro's campaign pointed instead to weather in some regions as a barrier to turnout, DW reported.

No first-round runner-up had won a Brazilian presidential runoff since the country's return to democracy in 1985, the Guardian reported. Student-led protests against Bolsonaro after the first round gave Lula's campaign momentum, according to the Guardian. Among Brazilians voting in Germany, Lula won 79.09% of ballots cast. That's up from 71.9% in the first round, DW reported.

Lula also served two terms from 2003 to 2010. He is now Brazil's longest-serving modern president. He turns 81 on Tuesday. Bolsonaro is 45.

"The right wants to govern with the American flag," Lula told reporters after casting his ballot Sunday, according to DW.