Brazil declares Lula runoff winner as Bolsonaro seeks annulment

Brazil’s electoral authority declared Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva the winner of the presidential runoff, giving him a fourth term after he defeated Senator Flávio Bolsonaro with 51.8% of valid votes to Bolsonaro’s 48.2%. Bolsonaro rejected the result and said he would seek to annul the election; the supplied reports do not establish that a formal challenge has been filed or accepted for review. The reported tally gave Lula about 64.17 million votes and Bolsonaro roughly 59.79 million, a margin of approximately 4.38 million. The runoff followed an October 4 first round in which Bolsonaro led Lula by about 2.2 million votes, but neither candidate secured the majority needed to avoid a second round. A late voting extension became a focus of Bolsonaro’s objection. Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin ordered voting extended by two hours after requests from Lula’s coalition citing transportation problems. Bolsonaro’s campaign had also sought extensions for some areas affected by heavy rain. Zanin later clarified that the extension applied only to polling sections where voting machines had not yet closed; votes from machines already closed would be counted normally. The timing of the...