2026 Brazilian general election

Background

Having unsuccessfully run for president in 1989, 1994 and 1998, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the left-wing Workers' Party was elected in 2002 and 2006. He was then succeeded by his chief of staff, Dilma Rousseff, who was elected in 2010 and 2014. In 2016, Rousseff was removed from office due to administrative misconduct and was succeeded by her vice president, Michel Temer, of the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement. Lula attempted to run for president again, but was prevented due to his conviction on corruption charges in 2017 as part of Operation Car Wash and imprisoned in 2018. Right-wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party was elected president in 2018. Bolsonaro left the Social Liberal Party in 2019 and joined the Liberal Party in 2021.

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. 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. Bolsonaro was subsequently convicted by the Supreme Federal Court, barred from running for a second term before 2030, and arrested in 2025. He endorsed his eldest son, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.

Electoral system

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). 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.

All 513 members of the Chamber of Deputies (federal deputies) are elected from 27 multi-member constituencies corresponding to the states and the Federal District, varying in size from 8 to 70 seats. All members of the state legislative assemblies (state deputies) and of the Legislative Chamber of the Federal District (district deputies), varying in size from 24 to 94 seats, are also elected. These elections are held using open list, proportional representation, with seats allocated using integer quotients and the D'Hondt method.

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.

Voters

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. 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, must pay a fine, normally R$3.51, 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.

Brazilian citizens residing abroad may only vote for president and vice president. Under the Equality Statute between Brazil and Portugal, Portuguese citizens legally residing in Brazil for more than three years may also register to vote in Brazilian elections.

About 158.7 million people were eligible to vote in the 2026 Brazilian elections.

Candidates and political parties

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).

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. 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).

For offices to be elected proportionally, each party must nominate candidates of each sex in a distribution between 30 and 70%. 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.

Procedure

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.

About 95,000 voting stations are installed in all municipalities of Brazil, the Federal District, and Fernando de Noronha. Most voting stations are in public schools. In some sparsely populated areas, such as indigenous territories, the installation and use of voting stations requires extensive travel and logistics. Voting stations are also installed in 164 locations in other countries, mostly in Brazilian diplomatic missions, for citizens residing abroad.

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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

Administration

Unusual in the world, Brazilian elections are administered by the judiciary. 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. 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.

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. Some media sources and opposition figures raised concerns about Lula's age, especially following a fall and brain bleed he suffered in December 2024. 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. Polls at the time from Quaest reported that 38% of respondents made crime their primary concern.

In December 2025, Flávio Bolsonaro, senator of Rio de Janeiro and son of the imprisoned Jair Bolsonaro, announced his intended candidacy. 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." Many believed this meant that Bolsonaro was saying he would drop out of the election if his father was released from prison. Bolsonaro later retracted this statement saying that after speaking with his father, he would continue with his campaign.

Lula made efforts to make Constitutional Amendment to End the 6x1 Work Schedule pass, and in October Flávio, as a senator, made the opposition to vote in favor of it.Bolsonaro once said the proposal was "opportunistic" because it was presented on the eve of the election.

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.

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.

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.

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. The messages revealed indications of improper closeness between the two, along with other revelations involving Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet. 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.

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. 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. 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.

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. 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). Justices Nunes Marques and Dias Toffoli declared themselves recused from the case.

Concerns about United States interference

United States president Donald Trump showed interest in Brazil's elections, and there were concerns that his administration might interfere in favor of Bolsonaro. 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. Bolsonaro chose to not ask Trump for his endorsement.

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.

In March 2026, through an edict, the TSE contracted to Hughes Telecommunications of Brazil, which would use satellite terminals with the infrastructure of Starlink, which belongs to Elon Musk, to ensure the sending of results from remote areas that do not have conventional data transition infrastructure. This caused controversy due to Musk's ties to the Trump administration, and concerns about data sovereignty.

In October 2026, Intercept Brasil reported that Flavio allegedly paid $600,000 to a US company in order to manipulate the elections.

Presidential debates

Times are in UTC−03:00.

Congress

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.