Brazil pauses runoff count after Supreme Court extends voting by two hours

Brazil’s Supreme Court extended voting in the country’s presidential election by two hours on Sunday, leading the electoral authority to pause a vote count that had already started publishing early-stage results, Reuters reported.

Polls had been due to close at 5 p.m. Brasilia time, but will now close at 7 p.m. after Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin accepted a request by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s campaign to extend voting, pointing to public transport issues in three cities in the state of Bahia, Reuters reported.

Zanin’s decision landed around the 5 p.m. cutoff, when the electoral court had already started publishing results showing Lula leading Senator Flavio Bolsonaro with 0.25% of ballots counted, at 57.66% to 42.34%. After the ruling, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) said it would pause the count to allow the extended voting window to close.

Lula’s campaign had asked electoral authorities to extend voting in at least nine states, alleging some officials reduced election-day public transport and affected voters’ ability to reach polling stations. Bolsonaro had also asked for voting to be extended in at least three states, citing bad weather, Reuters reported.

Earlier on Sunday, a court in Bahia, a Lula stronghold in the northeast, ordered the arrest of a top transport official in the city of Salvador over allegations he directed a reduction in the city’s bus fleet.

No winner has yet been declared. The early figures cover only 0.25% of ballots and are not a result. The runoff pits Lula against Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup after refusing to concede his 2022 defeat to Lula.