Lula's Fourth-Term Win Draws Praise From US Progressives as Polling Extension Fuels Legal Doubts

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won a fourth term, setting off a wave of reaction on social media Monday from American politicians and groups who followed the result from abroad.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., wrote on X that Brazil had shown that "the will of the people is stronger than the authoritarians who try to suppress it." Many progressives have cast the result as an international rejection of the politics of the Trump administration and its allies.

Questions about the vote persist, however. Late on election day, Lula asked Brazil's Supreme Court for a two-hour extension of voting hours, pointing to delays in public transportation. Justice Christiano Zanin approved a nationwide extension less than half an hour before polls were due to close. Lula's opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro, objected strongly. He said it was "frankly unacceptable" that a justice who was once Lula's lawyer would change the rules mid-contest at the request of a former partner. The Bolsonaro campaign had also sought an extension, citing heavy rain.

Electoral law specialists told Brazilian media the extension and the weather could open the door to a legal challenge. Guilherme Gonçalves, an attorney and member of the Brazilian Academy of Electoral and Political Law, told GZH that annulment could be requested. He cited flooding in Santa Catarina and Paraná, along with bus shortages and transit restrictions in cities such as Salvador and São Paulo, as harm to the right to vote.

Another attorney, Guilherme Barcelos, who holds a doctorate in constitutional law, doubted such a challenge would succeed. Still, he said the Supreme Court had contributed to instability in the process. "The election does not end today. That is the point," he told GZH.

Republican figures in the United States were sharply critical. Martin De Luca, an attorney for some of President Donald Trump's media groups, accused Lula of benefiting from ties to the court. Donald Trump Jr. replied that if a conservative government had done the same, the American mainstream press would "lose their minds." Joey Mannarino, co-founder of the conservative-leaning Overton Institute, claimed Brazil had its country "stolen."

Bolsonaro's campaign had promised to improve public safety by expanding prison capacity and to shrink government by cutting government ministries by 25%. Many Democrats saw those ideas as similar to Trump administration efforts. Lula, by contrast, campaigned on anti-poverty programs, higher minimum wages and more help for low-income families.

The Democratic Socialists of America congratulated Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and their coalition of progressive and left parties on the win in Sunday's runoff. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Lula "has stood up for Brazilian workers and democracy," while Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said that with Lula's victory, people fighting extremism around the world "just won."