Brazil restarts voting after court extends polling hours amid razor-thin race

Brazil's Federal Supreme Court issued a last-minute order Sunday (local time) to extend voting by two hours in the presidential runoff, forcing election authorities who had already begun counting ballots to halt the tally and reopen polling stations. The extension came after both candidates — President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro — requested it, and is expected to push back both the vote count and the announcement of a winner.

Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin ordered polling hours extended from the scheduled 5 p.m. close to 7 p.m. According to Folha de S.Paulo, one of Brazil's leading newspapers, a mid-election extension of voting hours is unprecedented in Brazilian presidential history.

The decision came after the court accepted an emergency injunction request from the camp of Lula, the incumbent president and left-wing candidate. His campaign alleged that local governments in major cities with strong ruling-party support — including São Paulo, Salvador in Bahia state, and Feira de Santana — had deliberately reduced public bus services to prevent voters from reaching polling stations.

Speaking to reporters, Lula condemned the alleged interference. "It is unacceptable that in the 21st century there are attempts to obstruct voters' free exercise of their right to vote," he said, adding that he would seek the arrest and criminal investigation of the relevant local officials on election-crime charges once the vote concluded.

In some areas, arrest warrants were issued — including by the Bahia state electoral court — against mayors and transportation officials on suspicion of deliberately reducing bus services.

The extension was also something right-wing candidate Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro had sought.

His campaign asked the Superior Electoral Court to extend voting hours in specific municipalities, citing heavy rain, landslides, road closures and power outages across three states — São Paulo, Paraná and Santa Catarina — that had made it impossible for voters to reach polling stations.

The Federal Supreme Court acknowledged the gravity of the situation and extended the closing time to 7 p.m. at all polling stations nationwide. The order came just minutes after the original 5 p.m. deadline had passed. According to Bloomberg, election authorities had already processed about 0.25 percent of ballots before the ruling forced them to suspend counting and resume voting.

With the extended closing time, electronic ballot tabulation at some 500,000 polling stations across the country will also begin later than planned. The extension adds another variable to an already razor-thin race, raising concerns that any delay in the count could fuel fraud allegations. Some social media platforms and comment sections were already circulating claims of electoral fraud.

Cássio Nunes Marques, president of the Superior Electoral Court, told a local briefing that results and the identity of the next president were now expected to become clear between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. — later than originally anticipated.