A series of rulings by the Supreme Federal Court questioning the legality of Lula's trial led to his release from prison in 2019 and the restoration of his political rights by 2021.[3][4] Lula narrowly defeated Bolsonaro in the 2022 presidential election, securing a non-consecutive third term. In response to his loss, some Bolsonaro supporters demanded a military coup to prevent Lula's inauguration, but failed to gather sufficient support.[5] Bolsonaro was subsequently convicted by the Supreme Federal Court, barred from running for a second term before 2030, and arrested in 2025.[6] He endorsed his eldest son, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.
Brazil's president and vice president are elected as a joint ticket using the two-round system. The first round of elections is held on the first Sunday of October (in this instance, 4 October 2026).[7] A candidate who receives more than half of the valid votes in the first round is elected.
If this threshold is not met by any candidate, the two most voted candidates in the first round participate in a second round of voting, held on the last Sunday of October, in this instance, 25 October 2026. The most voted candidate in the second round is elected. Elections for governors and vice governors of all 26 states and of the Federal District are held on the same dates and with the same two-round system as the presidential election.
Two-thirds of the 81 members of the Brazilian Senate are up for election in 2026, two senators being elected from each of the states and the Federal District using plurality block voting. The other third of the Senate was elected in 2022.[8]
All seven members of the District Council of Fernando de Noronha are elected by single non-transferable vote. Unlike elections for other offices in Brazil, candidates for this council are not nominated by political parties.[11]
Voters
Official 2026 elections logo
Voting in Brazil is allowed for citizens over 16 years of age and mandatory for literate citizens between 18 and 70 years of age, except conscripts, who are not allowed to vote during their period of mandatory military service.[12] Those who are required but do not vote in an election and do not present an acceptable justification, such as being absent from their voting locality at the time,[13] must pay a fine, normally R$3.51,[14][15] equivalent to about US$0.70 as of 2026. In some cases, the fine may be waived, reduced, or increased by up to 10 times.[16]
All candidates for federal, state, Federal District, and municipal offices must be nominated by a political party. For offices to be elected by majority or plurality (executive offices and senators), parties may form an electoral coalition (coligação) to nominate a single candidate. The coalitions do not need to be composed of the same parties for every nomination, do not need to be maintained after the election, and are not valid for offices to be elected proportionally (deputies and aldermen).[20]
Parties may also form a different type of alliance called federation (federação), which acts as a single party to nominate candidates for all offices in all locations, including those to be elected proportionally, and must be maintained with a single leadership structure over the course of the elected legislature.[21] Federations may also act as parties to form coalitions. For the 2026 election, the registered federations are Brazil of Hope (PT–PCdoB–PV), Always Forward (PSDB–Cidadania), PSOL REDE Federation (PSOL–REDE), Solidary Renewal (PRD–Solidarity), and Progressive Union (Union–PP).[22]
For offices to be elected proportionally, each party must nominate candidates of each sex in a distribution between 30 and 70%.[20] Parties must also allocate their funds and broadcast time proportionally to the number of their candidates of each sex and race, with a minimum of 30% of funds for Black and Brown candidates.[23][24]
Countries with voting stations for Brazilian citizens abroad
Voting in Brazilian elections can only be done in person and only on election day, which is always a Sunday. There is no provision for postal or early voting. Voter registration must be done in advance, and each voter can only vote in one designated voting station, either based on the voter's registered domicile or at a different location that the voter must specifically request if planning to be there temporarily on election day. Voters must provide photo identification at their voting station before proceeding to vote.[25]
About 95,000 voting stations are installed in all municipalities of Brazil, the Federal District, and Fernando de Noronha.[26] Most voting stations are in public schools.[27] In some sparsely populated areas, such as indigenous territories, the installation and use of voting stations requires extensive travel and logistics.[28] Voting stations are also installed in 164 locations in other countries, mostly in Brazilian diplomatic missions, for citizens residing abroad.[29]
Brazilian voting machines
Voting is done almost entirely on direct-recording electronic voting machines, designed for extreme simplicity. The voter dials a number corresponding to the desired candidate or party, causing the name and photo of the candidate or party to appear on the screen, then the voter presses a green button to confirm or an orange button to correct and try again. It is also possible to leave the vote blank by pressing a white button, or to nullify the vote by dialing a number that does not correspond to any candidate or party. Paper ballots are only used in case a voting machine malfunctions or in locations abroad with fewer than 100 voters.[25]
The electronic system is subject to extensive tests, including on machines randomly selected from actual voting stations on election day, witnessed by political parties to rule out fraud. After voting ends, every machine prints a record of its total votes for each candidate or party, which is publicly displayed for comparison with the results published electronically.[30] The system delivers the complete election results usually a few hours after voting ends, which is extremely fast for such a large population as Brazil. However, the system does not create a physical record of individual votes to allow a full recount.[31]
Voting stations operate at the same time in the whole country, regardless of their time zone: 9:00 to 18:00 UTC−02:00, 8:00 to 17:00 UTC−03:00, 7:00 to 16:00 UTC−04:00, and 6:00 to 15:00 UTC−05:00.[25] The unified voting time does not apply to voting stations for citizens abroad, which operate from 8:00 to 17:00 local time, ranging from 16 hours before to 4 hours after those in Brazil.[32]
Unusual in the world, Brazilian elections are administered by the judiciary.[33][34] Brazil has one Superior Electoral Court (Tribunal Superior Eleitoral, TSE), and each state and the Federal District have a Regional Electoral Court (Tribunal Regional Eleitoral, TRE), all headed by judges selected from other courts.[35] The electoral courts are responsible for judicial tasks such as ruling on disputes and potential violations of electoral law, and for implementing the elections, such as registering voters and candidates, installing voting machines, counting votes, publishing the results, and issuing regulations and monitoring compliance.[33][34]
On 30 June 2023, Bolsonaro was declared ineligible until 2030 for abuse of political power and misuse of the media after attacking the Brazilian electoral system at a meeting with foreign ambassadors on 18 July 2022, broadcast on the public television network TV Brasil. On 11 September 2025, he was sentenced to 27 years in prison for being involved in the 2022–2023 coup d'état plot.
Under the Constitution, the president of Brazil must be at least 35 years old at inauguration,[70][71] and Ferreira would be 30 years old in January 2027.[72][73]
On 21 February 2025, Marçal was declared ineligible until 2032 for abuse of economic and political power, misuse of the media, and illicit fundraising during his campaign in the 2024 São Paulo mayoral election.[75] He was convicted for the second time in April and for the third time in July for other electoral crimes committed in 2024.[76][77] On 11 September 2026, the Superior Electoral Court ruled Marçal ineligible due to his lack of affiliation to the nominating party before the required deadline and his previous criminal convictions.[78][79]
Campaign
Early developments
In late-October 2025, President Lula da Silva announced the beginning of his re-election campaign, running for a fourth presidential term.[80][81] Some media sources and opposition figures raised concerns about Lula's age, especially following a fall and brain bleed he suffered in December 2024.[81] Days after his announcement, Operation Containment — a police operation in Rio de Janeiro that resulted in 120 deaths, making it the deadliest police operation in the city's history — took place. Valor International reported that Lula used the operation to project a tough-on-crime image.[82] Polls at the time from Quaest reported that 38% of respondents made crime their primary concern.[80]
In December 2025, Flávio Bolsonaro, senator of Rio de Janeiro and son of the imprisoned Jair Bolsonaro, announced his intended candidacy.[80][83] Shortly after his announcement, he suggested dropping out of the campaign in return for favors, saying "There's a possibility I won't go all the way, ... have a price for that. I will negotiate."[83] Many believed this meant that Bolsonaro was saying he would drop out of the election if his father was released from prison.[83] Bolsonaro later retracted this statement saying that after speaking with his father, he would continue with his campaign.[83]
Corruption scandals
Part of the campaign's key issues were overshadowed by the advance of two ongoing investigations, which touched figures across all three branches of government and from parties across the spectrum — both government allies and the opposition — including presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro himself.
The first is the Banco Master scandal, which triggered a Central Bank intervention over suspected accounting fraud and misappropriation of funds. The case involves these figures' relationships with former banker Daniel Vorcaro, the institution's former controlling shareholder: senator Flávio Bolsonaro, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, senator Ciro Nogueira — who served as Chief of Staff (Casa Civil) under Jair Bolsonaro — and senator Jaques Wagner, then Lula government's leader in the Senate. All four appear in messages, contracts or dealings linked to Vorcaro, some already under direct investigation.[84][85][86][87][88]
The second is the INSS fraud scandal, which involves unauthorized deductions from retirees' and pensioners' benefits, tied to associations and unions accused of passing part of the proceeds on to public officials. The case has implicated President Lula's eldest son, Fábio Luís Lula da Silva (Lulinha), and the president's chief of staff, Marco Aurélio Santana, both investigated for alleged influence trafficking over their proximity to Antônio Carlos Camilo Antunes — known as "Careca do INSS" — the accused operator of the scheme.[89]
The two cases, unfolding simultaneously, have drawn attention away from campaign coverage and put pressure on candidates directly or indirectly linked to the figures involved, shifting the debate from campaign issues to the investigations' daily revelations.[90][91]
Institutional crisis at the Supreme Federal Court
On 1 September 2026, the situation escalated into an institutional crisis at the Supreme Federal Court (STF), with the revelation of messages exchanged between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and banker Daniel Vorcaro — including on the day of his arrest — whose confidentiality had been lifted by Justice André Mendonça.[86] The messages revealed indications of improper closeness between the two, along with other revelations involving Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet.[92] In response, on 3 September, Moraes requested that an investigation be opened against Mendonça as part of the Fake News Inquiry, for his handling of the Master case investigation.[93]
The situation escalated further on 8 September, when Mendonça ordered the preventive removal of the Federal Police's Director-General, Andrei Rodrigues, alleging that he had been illegally monitored by the PF.[94] The following day, 9 September, Justice Flávio Dino ordered the immediate reinstatement of Rodrigues, creating a standoff. Later that same day, the Court's president, Justice Edson Fachin, suspended both Mendonça's decision and Dino's, maintaining the status quo until a final ruling, and removed Moraes as rapporteur of the Fake News Inquiry, taking over the case himself.[95][96] Fachin also called an extraordinary session for 15 September, at which the full court is expected to rule on the legality of Mendonça's actions, the validity of the evidence obtained from Vorcaro's phone, and the Prosecutor General's Office's request to annul the entire procedure.[97]
On 15 September, the Supreme Court began hearing the request for Justice Alexandre de Moraes to be investigated. The discussion, however, was limited to preliminary matters. The vote currently stands at 4–4 against merging the petition on opening an investigation into Moraes (PET 16662) with the one concerning Justice André Mendonça (PET 16704), in a joint session scheduled for 23 September. Justices Edson Fachin, André Mendonça, Luiz Fux, and Cármen Lúcia voted against the merger. Justices Flávio Dino, Cristiano Zanin, Alexandre de Moraes, and Gilmar Mendes voted in favor.[98][99] In the event of a tie, the decision falls to Chief Justice Fachin — however, the announcement of the result was postponed due to Justice Dino's request for more time to review the case (pedido de vista).[100] Justices Nunes Marques and Dias Toffoli declared themselves recused from the case.[101]
United States president Donald Trump showed interest in Brazil's elections, and there were concerns that his administration might interfere in favor of Bolsonaro.[102][103] Members of the United States Senate issued a joint letter to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying that his administration was using pressure tactics that could harm Brazil's democracy, and highlighting Darren Beattie's controversial role in the Department of State. They urged the administration to promise to accept the results of the elections in Brazil.[102] Bolsonaro chose to not ask Trump for his endorsement.[104]
Jorge Messias, Lula's attorney general who was unsuccessfully nominated for the Supreme Federal Court in 2025, accused the United States of interfering against the Brazilian Supreme Court in a post on X.[105][106][107]
In March 2026, through an edict, the TSE contracted to Hughes Telecommunications of Brazil, which would use satellite terminals with the infrastructure of Starlink,[108] which belongs to Elon Musk, to ensure the sending of results from remote areas that do not have conventional data transition infrastructure.[109] This caused controversy due to Musk's ties to the Trump administration,[110] and concerns about data sovereignty.[111][112]
The results of the previous general elections and the current composition of the National Congress are given below. The party composition changed during the course of the legislature due to replacements of members, changes in their party affiliation, and mergers of parties. In 2026, all members of the Chamber of Deputies and two thirds of the Senate (two senators from each state and the Federal District) will be up for election.
↑Same party as the presidential candidate, unless mentioned in parentheses.
↑Candidates from coalitions that include parties which passed the electoral threshold in 2022 are entitled to free advertisement on television and radio from 28 August to 1 October 2026. The block for presidential candidates occurs three days per week, twice per day, for 12min30s, of which 10% are divided equally among all candidates entitled to airtime, and 90% are distributed proportionally to the number of federal deputies of the parties in each candidate's coalition.[37] The times listed below are in minutes and seconds per block.[38]
If there is a runoff election, the two remaining candidates receive blocks of free airtime divided equally between them, from 9 to 23 October 2026.[37]
↑While official party's position was not to endorse either presidential candidate in the second round, presidential candidate Ronaldo Caiado publicly announced his support for Bolsonaro.[114]
↑Debates broadcast on television or radio were legally required to invite all candidates whose parties or coalitions had at least five members in the National Congress based on the previous election.[37] Lula, Bolsonaro, Caiado and Cury satisfied this criterion.[38][122] Debate organizers could also choose to invite additional candidates. Shortly before the last debate for the first round, judges granted injunctions ordering the debate organizers to also invite Zema and Santos.[123]
↑The debate was canceled due to the fact that Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro had not confirmed their attendance by the 7 September deadline.
↑The debate was canceled because all the candidates, except Renan Santos, either failed to confirm or canceled their participation.
↑The debate was canceled due to the fact that Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro had not confirmed their attendance.
↑Initially, the candidates whose participation is required by law were invited: Lula, Flávio Bolsonaro, Ronaldo Caiado and Augusto Cury.
On 29 September, the president of the Superior Electoral Court, Justice Nunes Marques, ruled that Romeu Zema's participation should also be guaranteed, since his party currently holds five seats in the Chamber of Deputies. The next day, 30 September, Lula confirmed he would not take part in the debate.
On 1 October, just hours before the debate, TSE Justice Estela Aranha suspended a rule agreed upon by all campaigns, under which an absent candidate would be represented by an empty podium, and the other candidates could direct questions to it. Moments later, Flávio Bolsonaro withdrew from the debate, citing "censorship imposed by the TSE." Shortly afterward, Supreme Federal Court Justice Gilmar Mendes granted an injunction guaranteeing Renan Santos's participation in the debate.
Following this series of court rulings, Globo decided to cancel the debate less than an hour before it was due to begin.
↑The debate was canceled due to scheduling conflicts on the part of both candidates.
↑Compared to the combined results of Podemos and the Social Christian Party in 2022. The Social Christian Party merged into Podemos in 2023.
↑Compared to the combined results of the Brazilian Labour Party and Patriot in 2022. The two parties merged to form the Democratic Renewal Party in 2022.
↑Compared to the Brazilian Woman's Party in 2022. The party was renamed to Democrat in 2025.
↑"Direito/Obrigatoriedade do Voto"[Right/obligation to vote] (in Portuguese). Regional Electoral Court of Rio de Janeiro. Archived from the original on 16 December 2021. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
↑"Justificativa eleitoral"[Electoral justification] (in Portuguese). Superior Electoral Court. Archived from the original on 14 July 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
↑"Tira-dúvidas dos eleitores"[Questions and answers for voters] (in Portuguese). Regional Electoral Court of São Paulo. Archived from the original on 3 July 2026. Retrieved 16 May 2026.
↑"Multa Eleitoral"[Electoral fine] (in Portuguese). Regional Electoral Court of Rio de Janeiro. Archived from the original on 3 July 2026. Retrieved 16 May 2026.
↑"Eleitorado da eleição"[Electorate of the election] (in Portuguese). Superior Electoral Court. Archived from the original on 3 July 2026. Retrieved 16 May 2026.
↑"Auditoria e fiscalização"[Audit and inspection] (in Portuguese). Electoral Justice. Archived from the original on 6 September 2022. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
↑"Urna eletrônica"[Electronic voting machine] (in Portuguese). Electoral Justice. Archived from the original on 27 June 2022. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
↑"Voto no exterior"[Vote abroad](PDF) (in Portuguese). Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil. 27 September 2022. Archived(PDF) from the original on 2 October 2022. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
12"Só no país Justiça Eleitoral tem tantas atribuições"[Only in this country the Electoral Justice has so many duties](PDF) (in Portuguese). Senate of Brazil. 8 September 2010. Archived(PDF) from the original on 15 September 2024. Retrieved 17 May 2026.
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