Vanessa Buschschlüter
Latin America and Caribbean editor

When President Lula lost to Flávio Bolsonaro in the first round of this election, many analysts said he had reached the end of the political road.

They pointed to the fact that no candidate had ever been able to recover from a first-round loss to go on to win in the run-off. They also insisted that opinion polls often underestimated the support for right-wing candidates.

Lula himself, though, had seemed confident, telling his supporters to have faith and rally in his support.

The veteran leader has of course been written off before. In 2017, he was convicted of corruption and sent to jail for more than 18 months.

Those convictions were annulled in 2021, leaving Lula free to run for the presidency in the 2022 election, in which he beat Jair Bolsonaro.

Now he has beaten Jair Bolsonaro's son, showing once more that he is a formidable political opponent, even at 80 years of age.

Ione Wells
Reporting from Brasília

Brazil’s President Lula da Silva has just been elected for a fourth term.

This is a huge upset for the Flávio Bolsonaro campaign. No candidate since democracy was restored in 1988 has won the second round after not winning the first round of voting.

Voting was delayed for two hours after both campaigns complained about disruptions to voting, caused by the public transport system in some cities and bad weather.

Despite this, Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign had already raised doubts about the process before the result was announced.

We can bring you a bit more detail now on the results.

With 99.81% of votes counted, Lula has secured 51.76% of the vote, compared to Flávio Bolsonaro's 48.24%.

Vanessa Buschschlüter
Latin America and Caribbean editor

This was a bitterly fought campaign.

It is Lula's fourth win in a presidential election, having served two terms as president from January 2003 to December 2010, and again from January 2023.

But the road to this win was not a smooth one.

Bolsonaro had beaten Lula in the first round on 4 October and many had not thought it possible for him to turn the result around in just three weeks.

He has also bucked a wider trend in Latin America, where voters have punished incumbents and turned to the right.

Across the region, larger countries such as Argentina, Chile and Colombia all now have conservative leaders at their helm.

Brazilian President Lula has been re-elected, Brazil's electoral authority has declared.

This is the first time a president has overturned a first-round loss since the return of democracy in 1988.

More than 90% of votes have now been counted and President Lula remains in the lead, with 51.62% of the votes to Flávio Bolsonaro's 48.38%.

If Lula wins, this would be the first time a candidate has overturned a first-round loss in Brazil since the return of democracy in 1988.

Ione Wells
Reporting from Brasília

I’m outside the house where Flávio Bolsonaro is watching the results in Brasilia.

A huge screen is set up, and the assumption is he was due to give a speech here.

As I walked in, I saw some supporters of Bolsonaro decked in the Brazilian flags and colours walking away looking quite despondent.

The official vote count is still under way in Brazil's presidential run-off, but pollster Datafolha projects that President Lula will win the election.

The result has not yet been declared by the electoral court, but with more than 80% of the vote counted Lula is marginally in the lead.

We may hear an official result relatively soon.

More than 60% of the votes have now been counted as Flávio Bolsonaro and President Lula da Silva are locked in a knife-edge contest to become Brazil's next president.

The country's Supreme Court (TSE) says 85, 893,756 votes have now been counted, representing 67.39% of the total vote.

We'll bring you the latest updates as counting continues across Brazil.

Polls have closed in Brazil's presidential election, with supporters of both candidates being seen on the country's streets this evening.

The delay of polls being closed means that the result of this year's election could be pushed back by several hours, BBC correspondent Ione Wells writes.

These photos show voters gathering in Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Brasília as they await the results this evening.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Polls have closed and results are coming in from across Brazil after a tense few hours and a last-minute voting extension.

With around 10% of votes counted, you can follow the latest results and the breakdown by state over on BBC News Brasil's election map.

It's still too early to be able to tell which way it is going to go, and with this election being one of the closest the country has ever seen, it is likely to be a while until a definite result comes in.

Gabriela Boccaccio
Live reporter

Image source, Sofia Duarte

A polling station worker says no one knew what to do as a voting extension was announced across the country.

Sofia Duarte was volunteering for the election at a school in the city of São Paulo when she started seeing reports on social media about a possible voting extension.

"No one told us anything. So as usual, we wrapped things up at 17:00 (20:00 GMT). We printed the voting tallies, all in accordance with the protocol," Sofia tells BBC News.

She says the queue she stood in to deliver the electoral documents was not moving, at which point "we connected the dots that maybe we would have to reopen the machines - but how?"

Duarte asked an employee of the regional electoral court about the situation and says she was told "no one knew what was going on".

"No one knew how to act. This had never happened before and no one knew how to proceed," she says.

Sofia adds that they were told to stay at the school until 19:00 (22:00 GMT), but at 18:00 (21:00) they were told to handover the voting machines and leave.

Ione Wells
Reporting from Brasília

Things here feel very tense.

We were supposed to have some results by now, but here at Brazil’s top electoral court a dramatic decision was taken to extend voting by two hours.

That was after concerns by both campaigns that public transport disruption and bad weather had affected voter turnout.

Their concerns are indicative of just how close they think this could be - and that they’re fighting for every vote. That is because in the last few days the polls have really narrowed - too close to call, the pollsters said.

But because of this eleventh hour decision some polling stations had already closed.

I suspect if the result is extremely close - this isn’t the last we will hear about that disruption and we could see attempted appeals.

Image source, Reuters

Polls have closed for the second time in the Brazilian presidential election after the country's Supreme Court issued an extension of two hours across the country.

The vote had initially finished at 17:00 local time (20:00 GMT), but this was extended to 19:00 following a request made by President Lula's campaign in three cities in the state of Bahia - alleging voters had been affected by disruption to public transport.

Minister Cristiano Zanin later specified the extension only applied where voting has not yet been finalised, as some polling stations had already closed their machines at the original time of 17:00.

Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign had also requested for polls to stay open longer, saying bad weather as a result of heavy rains in several cities could have hindered voters.

We will bring you the latest updates as votes are counted here.

Image source, Reuters

In the last hour, polls in Brazil have been extended by two hours after a last-minute decision. But how did we get here?

• Earlier this evening, Lula's party (PT) alleged that buses had been disrupted in two cities: in Salvador, in Bahia state, and in São Paulo. It submitted a motion asking the electoral authorities in Bahia to extend polling until 19:00 local time (22:00 GMT)
• Speaking to journalists, President Lula asked the National Electoral Court and the Supreme Court to look into these reports and give people more time to vote where transport had been affected
• Electoral court president Justice Kassio Nunes Marques said the court was looking into reports that transport had been disrupted in some cities
• Flávio Bolsonaro also requested that polls remain open in some areas, claiming bad weather could hinder voters in several states, including São Paulo and Santa Catarina
• Responding to the original motion filed in Bahia, the Supreme Court ruled that polls must remain open until 19:00 local time (22:00 GMT) across the entire country
• After reports that some polling stations had already closed their machines, and confusion from both voters and polling station workers, the Supreme Court said pollsshould remain open only where voting hadn't yet been finalised

Image source, Reuters

We're hearing more now from the Supreme Court minister who granted a two-hour voting extension across the country.

In an additional note to his first statement, Minister Cristiano Zanin now says polls must remain open until 19:00 local time (22:00 GMT) only where voting has not yet been finalised.

As Brazil uses electronic voting machines, once they are closed, they cannot be re-opened. Some polling stations had already closed their machines at the original time of 17:00 (think of it as turning off a computer that cannot be turned back on), while others had remained open as people were still queuing at 17:00.

The minister now says that in polling stations where voting had already been finalised, the result will be counted as it was declared at 17:00. Meanwhile, at polling stations which hadn't yet closed all of their machines, voting can continue until the extended time of 19:00.

Image source, Getty Images

Several poll workers have told BBC Brasil that they had already been dismissed despite the polls being extended by two hours.

One worker says she saw a woman try to enter a school that had been used as a polling station after 17:00 local time, citing the minister's decision to extend the polls, but was prevented from voting.

The principal of a state school in Pirituba, a neighborhood in the western part of São Paulo, tells BBC Brasil his polling station had already closed and issued the ballot box reports when the local electoral office announced the extension.

He says there are no technical guidelines on how to reopen the ballot boxes, despite the Regional Electoral Court (TRE) ordering polling stations to remain open.

The principal of a school in the Limão neighbourhood of the city also said they had finished for the day, but the ballet boxes still remain at the polling station.

Image source, Reuters

US President Donald Trump says he is watching the Brazilian elections after being asked by journalists who he was supporting.

Brazil's relationship with the US has been at the heart of this election. A win for Bolsonaro would add Brazil to the list of Western Hemisphere countries aligned with the Trump administration.

Flávio Bolsonaro has actively courted Trump and members of his administration by portraying himself as a loyal ally during a meeting at the White House in May.

Results could be pushed back by several hours following polls extensionpublished at 20:37 GMT 25 October

20:37 GMT 25 October

Ione Wells
Reporting from Brasília

This is a highly unusual step by Brazil’s top electoral court to extend voting by two hours.

President Lula was concerned about disruption to the public transport bus network in the major cities of São Paulo and Salvador.

It’s no surprise that would concern him: São Paulo state is a key swing state, and the city is the most populous in South America so accounts for a significant number of votes.

Salvador is also, traditionally, a city where he enjoys a strong voter base in Brazil’s northeast.

Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign also reportedly raised concerns about bad weather affecting areas in São Paulo and Santa Catarina, a southern city where he also enjoys a strong support base.

This decision could well mean that results are pushed back several hours, or even into the early hours of the morning.

As we have just reported, following a decision by the country's Supreme Court, voting has been extended in Brazil's presidential election until 19:00 local time (22:00 GMT).

The decision was made following a request made by President Lula's campaign in three cities in the state of Bahia. The campaign alleged voters had been affected by public transport disruption.

The request was granted by Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin and applies to polling stations across the country.

Zanin says the court became aware of the situation at 16:32 local time, and the order had been made given the seriousness of the allegations and the urgency of the situation.

The minister also instructed the Superior Electoral Court to take the necessary steps to comply with the order.