Image source, Reuters

Polls have now closed in Brazil's presidential election run-off between left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and right-wing senator Flávio Bolsonaro.

However, both Lula and Bolsonaro have asked for polls to remain open for longer in some areas

Lula claimed public transport in Salvador and São Paulo had been disrupted, while Bolsonaro's campaign called for extended hours in a large number of cities - claiming bad weather could hinder voters.

It's not clear whether either request will be allowed - we'll bring you updates here when we have it.

Julia Braun
BBC Brasil in London

Image source, Leobark Rodrigues/Secom/TSE

Almost half of eligible voters aged 70 or older did not go to the polls in the first round of the 2026 Brazil presidential elections.

Abstention reached 49.1% in this age group, according to data from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) — the highest among all age groups.

In absolute numbers, this represents more than 8 million Brazilians who did not go to the polls — or almost four times the difference in votes between Flávio Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the first round, which was just over 2.2 million.

It's mandatory for Brazilians aged 18 to 69 to vote - but for those aged 16 and 17, and 70 and above, it is not.

In other words, in addition to winning their votes, campaigns had to work to convince older voters to go to the polls.

For political scientist Mayra Goulart, professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), this is possibly the most strategic group in the second round.

"It is in this age group that we observe the highest [proportional] level of abstention and, therefore, since we are talking about a narrow margin of votes, it can be decisive for one candidate or another," she says.

Polls for Brazil's presidential election are set to close in less than an hour, at 17:00 local time (20:00 GMT).

Brazil's electoral court president Justice Kassio Nunes Marques says it is looking reports that transport has been disrupted in some cities.

It comes after President Lula asked for polls to remain open longer due to the disruption. Lula's party has requested that polls in areas afffected by the disruption remain open until 19:00 local time (22:00 GMT).

Julia Braun
BBC Brasil in London

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Countries in Asia, Africa and Oceania have already finished voting in the second round of the presidential election this Sunday.

According to the first ballot box reports released by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Flávio Bolsonaro defeated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Japan, the United Arab Emirates, and Hong Kong, among other countries.

The Workers' Party candidate, on the other hand, came out ahead in countries like China, Australia, and New Zealand.

For context: Polls are still open until 17:00 local time(20:00 GMT), at which point vote counting will begin.

According to the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), almost one million Brazilians are eligible to vote abroad — or just over 0.5% of the total Brazilian electorate. This year, this total is distributed across 186 cities.

The rules for those voting outside the country are the same as those followed by voters residing in Brazil, that is, voting is mandatory for literate individuals aged 18 to 70.

You can read more on how other countries have been voting in today's election in the Portuguese live page from BBC Brasil.

Image source, Reuters

Brazilian President Lula has asked for polls to remain open longer in Salvador and São Paulo after his party claimed public transport in both cities had been disrupted.

He did not say how long he wanted the scheduled closing time of 17:00 local time (20:00 GMT) to be extended by.

Speaking to reporters, Lula asks the Supreme Court to extend voting in those areas to ensure those who were affected by the disruption are able to vote.

"What we want is an election done honestly and with everyone having their right to vote," he says, while also asking voters to "not give up" on their vote: "Wait, and vote, because democracy must win."

Nearly two million people are eligible to vote in Salvador, the capital of the north-eastern state of Bahia, while more than nine million others are eligible to vote in the city of São Paulo.

Local officials in Salvador say there was temporary disruption due to some buses having stickers with the candidates' faces and numbers on them, which goes against electoral rules.

BBC correspondent Ione Wells unpacks the results of the first round of Brazil's presidential elections, which took place on 4 October:

Vitor Tavares
BBC News Brasil, reporting from São Paulo

Image source, Handout

Sara Duarte, 30, was raised in a family that supported Lula and benefited from social programmes.

She says her views changed after moving from the city of São Luís to Balsas, a major soy-producing hub in the northeastern state of Maranhão.

"I started living among businesspeople who see different needs and opportunities," she tells BBC News Brasil.

Sara says she understands her family's "gratitude" at the Workers' Party's (PT) welfare policies that helped them.

But she now believes people achieve things thanks to their own "merit", and social policies mean people underachieve and avoid growing.

Brazil's first-round election results suggest Sara is part of a broader trend.

A Quaest study found that the more important agribusiness is to a municipality's economy, the greater the gains for Flávio Bolsonaro, as ideas linked to entrepreneurship, lighter regulation and lower taxes gain influence.

In São João do Triunfo, a southern tobacco-growing city where Lula suffered one of his steepest declines, historian Jefferson Machado also points to the growing influence of right-wing social media influencers, particularly among younger voters, as a factor reinforcing a new political and cultural identity.

Vanessa Buschschlüter
Latin America and Caribbean editor

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of convicted former president Jair, beat President Lula da Silva in the first round of voting on 4 October by a narrow margin, but fell short of the 50% of valid votes needed to win outright, triggering the run-off.

Here's what you need to know:

Bolsonaro v Lula mark two?

While there were 12 candidates in the running in the first round, this election has always been about Lula and Bolsonaro.

The surnames on the ballots will be the same as those in the 2022 run-off, when Lula beat Flávio's father, Jair, by 1.8 percentage points.

Bitter campaign reflects deep divisions

Lula and his Workers' Party have cast this election as a "battle for democracy", arguing that Jair Bolsonaro's conviction for coup-plotting is evidence that Bolsonarismo constitutes a threat to Brazil's democratic institutions.

Flávio Bolsonaro has also been labelling Lula's Workers' Party (PT) as corrupt, reminding voters of the massive financial scandals which plagued the PT for years and which have turned many voters against it.

The acrimonious attacks during the election campaign appear to have turned many people off voting altogether.

• You can read more in our news story

Ione Wells
Reporting from Brasília

Supporters of the candidates for today's Brazilian presidency election have been speaking to BBC News about the reasoning behind their votes.

“We voted for democracy, for the collective good. For equality," a woman in a couple with a Lula flag tells me.

“All of the social programmes that he represents, inclusion, diversity, democracy, the sovereignty of the country principally," the man adds.

Meanwhile, a man in a green t-shirt says there is a "lack of security" across the country.

He says: "We hope that Brazil renews itself and transforms itself, from this corruption."

Sofia Ferreira Santos
Reporting from London

I’ve just been to vote before coming in for my shift and even here in London, nearly 9,000kms (5,592 miles) away from the Brazilian capital, you can see how important this election is - and just how close the result is expected to be.

Outside the building where voting is taking place, supporters of Lula and Bolsonaro have split themselves up into groups with microphones, flags, drums and music, chanting in support of their candidate and, at points, against the candidate of the opposite group.

In the first round of this election earlier this month, Brazilians living in the UK voted for Lula in huge numbers, with the incumbent taking 56.33% of the vote.

Despite this, there is also a big crowd here in support of Bolsonaro and hoping to see him become the next president of Brazil.

Around 918,867 Brazilians are eligible to vote abroad, with 37,564 of these based across the UK, according to electoral data.

Flávio Bolsonaro and Lula could each be seen greeting their supporters after casting their votes at polling stations in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo on Sunday.

Voters lined the streets, sporting red or green and yellow colours to support the left or right-wing candidates respectively.

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Ione Wells
Reporting from Brasília

Here at a polling station in central Brasília, Brazil’s capital, people have come in with t-shirts and banners reading “the vote is secret” but, in what has become a bit of a viral in-joke in Brazil, then obviously decked themselves out in the colours of their party and candidate.

They are clearly marking themselves out in red (to support President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva) or green and yellow (Brazil’s national colours that have become a bit of a de-facto uniform for the right and Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign.)

People’s political allegiances have become an identity here, with millions taking to the streets in recent weeks for demonstrations, showing just how polarised the country is.

It’s expected turnout could be higher this round after 33 million people did not turn out in the first round, the highest abstention rate since 1998.

Image source, Wagner Meier/Getty Images

Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, is the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro and has been serving as a senator since 2019.

The trained lawyer is running for president as part of the right-wing Liberal Party (PL).

While he is seen as less confrontational than his father, Bolsonaro is appealing to a similar support base by promising to broadly follow in his footsteps.

The younger Bolsonaro has also courted evangelicals and the agricultural industry as part of his campaign.

His stance on climate change has been under scrutiny ahead of the elections. In an interview with Globo in August, he was asked whether he still believed that climate change did not exist - a stance he defended in 2019.

Bolsonaro acknowledged there had been "extreme climate events", but insisted these events were "cyclical".

The younger Bolsonaro is vying stronger ties with President Donald Trump's White House, actively courting Trump and members of his administration by portraying himself as a loyal ally during a meeting at the White House in May.

If elected, Bolsonaro would make Brazil the latest South American country to shift to the right during Trump's second term.

Image source, Getty Images

Right-wing Flávio Bolsonaro won the first round of Brazil's presidential election, beating left-wing President Lula da Silva, but falling short of an outright majority.

BBC News Brasil spoke with experts to understand who the other winners and losers are from that first round.

Winners:

Former president Jair Bolsonaro: He is currently under house arrest and ineligible to run for office, but if his son goes on to win in the run-off, it opens up the opportunity for amnesty, argues political scientist Murillo Aragão.

The Liberal Party (PL): The party of the Bolsonaros - the size of the victory means they can expect to retain the largest bloc in the Chamber of Deputies, which could lead to the presidency of that chamber, says Marco Antonio Teixeira, political scientist and professor.

Losers:

Lula's campaign and his Workers Party (PT): Since first becoming president in 2002, this is the first time Lula has come in second place in the first round, with Aragão saying the campaign was made for existing voters.

The Social Democratic Party (PSD): Two years ago in the first round of municipal elections, they emerged as the big winners - but now are among the biggest losers. For political scientist Rafael Cortez, the first-round defeat embodies the defeat of the centrist bloc, which lost ground to the radical right.

The Supreme Federal Court: The PL party increased its representation, which can already be interpreted as a defeat for the Supreme Court, according to Cortez, as they ran on "an anti-Supreme Court platform".

Brazilian President Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has been president three times, is running again as the candidate for the left-wing Workers' Party (PT).

Before his latest term in office, the veteran left-wing politician, known widely as Lula, also led the country between 2003 and 2010.

Policies enacted during those terms, particularly social welfare programmes, are widely praised for lifting millions out of poverty. Among those is Bolsa Família, a programme that pays families to ensure children stay in education and receive healthcare such as vaccines.

Image source, Ricardo Moreira/Getty Images

But Lula's political career suffered serious setbacks in the following years - he spent 18 months in prison between 2018 and 2019 after being convicted of corruption and money laundering, charges he always denied.

Those convictions were annulled in 2021, clearing the way for him to run for the presidency in the 2022 election, in which he beat Jair Bolsonaro.

The 80-year-old had vowed his third term would be his last, but his party endorsed him as their candidate again this year. Lula's main voter base is in Brazil's poorer north-east and he is also popular among low-income voters, Catholics and women.

Despite his pro-environment pledges, environmentalists have been critical of some of his recent actions - including his support for exploratory oil drilling in offshore waters near the mouth of the Amazon.

Ione Wells
Reporting from Brasília

Image source, Reuters

Both candidates have thanked their supporters for their second-round campaigning.

Voting in his home state of Rio de Janeiro, Flávio Bolsonaro said “we brought joy to the streets” and said “the time for real change has arrived.”

He argued that life had become worse under President Lula da Silva and said hope had “turned into fear, of walking the streets at night…of being unable to pay overdue bills.”

President Lula, who is voting in São Paulo today, said “what the people did in this second round is something I have never seen in my life.”

After he came second in the first round, his supporters mobilised huge rallies of hundreds of thousands of people to try to boost his vote and turnout.

One WhatsApp group of supporters had more than 10 million members.

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Image source, Reuters

Right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro could be seen with his wife Fernanda Bolsonaro today after casting his vote in the Brazilian presidency election.

The candidate thanked his supporters in a social media post earlier, calling on voters to build a Brazil for all Brazilians.

Image source, Reuters

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known widely as Lula, could be seen casting his vote in today's election in São Bernardo do Campo, posing for photographs afterwards.

The Workers' Party (PT) candidate said in a post on X earlier that the time has come to transform the hope of the Brazilian people into victory.

Lula was also pictured greeting supporters outside the polling station.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Sergio Lima and Evaristo SA / AFP via Getty Images

Brazilians are heading to the polls to choose their new president in a closely fought run-off election.

The choice is between incumbent left-wing leader Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva and right-wing candidate Flávio Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro is the son of the former president, Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year prison sentence for masterminding a failed coup after losing the 2022 election, and is now under house arrest.

The younger Bolsonaro, who has the backing of his father, won the first round of voting on 4 October with 47% of votes, ahead of Lula's 45% - but fell short of an outright majority.

Lula, 80, has described the run-off as a choice between democracy and "barbarism". While Bolsonaro, 45, has pledged to "free the Brazilian people".

Polls suggest sovereignty, crime, inclusion, welfare, the economy and corruption are some of voters' top concerns.

Stay with us and our teams in Rio, São Paulo and Brasilia for updates, reaction and analysis.