Polls close and counting begins

Voting stations across Brazil shut at 17.00 BRT, which is 20.00 GMT, and the first figures of the second round results are expected to arrive within the hour after closing. Brazil's president is chosen purely by popular vote: the winning candidate needs one more vote than 50% of votes cast, with no role for parliament or an electoral college in the decision.

The two names on the ballot

The runoff exists because no candidate reached 50% in the first round on 4 October, sending the two leading candidates into a second vote. They are:

• Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the incumbent leftwing president commonly known as Lula, who served two terms from 2003 to 2010 and returned to office in 2023, making him Brazil's longest-serving modern president. He turns 81 on Tuesday, days after the vote [F4, F13, F14].
• Flávio Bolsonaro, a lawyer and former senator from Rio de Janeiro and the son of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, who led the first round [F5, F7]. He is 45.

What to watch as results come in

In 2022, Lula beat Jair Bolsonaro in the second round, with his electoral base concentrated in the north-east while Bolsonaro led in the south. That year Lula also won the bellwether state of Minas Gerais, north of Rio de Janeiro, after entering the second round as the first-round leader.

This time the map may read differently: in the 2026 first round, Bolsonaro beat Lula in Minas Gerais by 48.43% to 43.33%.

The stakes beyond the count

Jair Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a failed coup attempt after losing the 2022 election to Lula. He has endorsed his son and hopes to be released if the son wins. Lula's campaign, meanwhile, has been buoyed by massive, student-led anti-Bolsonaro protests since the first round.