Brazil's left-wing President Lula is elected for a fourth term, beating Flávio Bolsonaro in a knife-edge vote – who is Lula?
This was a bitterly fought election – and it bucks a wider trend in the region where voters have turned to the right, our Latin America editor writes
Right-wing senator Bolsonaro – the son of imprisoned former president Jair Bolsonaro – won the first round earlier this month
It's a huge upset for Bolsonaro – no candidate has failed to take the presidency after winning the first round, our correspondent Ione Wells writes from Brasília
Lula, 80, had said the election was a matter of "sovereignty" and people faced a choice between someone who kissed the Brazilian flag and someone who kissed the American flag
Voting was extended by two hours at some polling stations earlier, after both campaigns pushed for it – here's what happened
Follow live coverage from BBC Brasil in Portuguese
Edited by Dulcie Lee and James Chater, with reporting from Ione Wells in Brasília and the BBC's Brasil service
Just after the result was declared, Lula was seen celebrating and kissing his wife in a video posted in his WhatsApp community group.
This video can not be played
President Lula is expected to give a speech soon from São Paulo, where his team and supporters are gathering to celebrate his victory.
We'll bring you the key lines.
Ione Wells
Reporting from Brasília
Outside the house where Flávio Bolsonaro was watching the result, some of his supporters are leaving – some looking visibly angry and despondent.
The scene here had been set for a victory party.
Vanessa Buschschlüter
Latin America and Caribbean editor
When President Lula lost to Flávio Bolsonaro in the first round of this election, many analysts said he had reached the end of the political road.
They pointed to the fact that no candidate had ever been able to recover from a first-round loss to go on to win in the run-off. They also insisted that opinion polls often underestimated the support for right-wing candidates.
Lula himself, though, had seemed confident, telling his supporters to have faith and rally in his support.
The veteran leader has of course been written off before. In 2017, he was convicted of corruption and sent to jail for more than 18 months.
Those convictions were annulled in 2021, leaving Lula free to run for the presidency in the 2022 election, in which he beat Jair Bolsonaro.
Now he has beaten Jair Bolsonaro's son, showing once more that he is a formidable political opponent, even at 80 years of age. Ione Wells
Reporting from Brasília
Brazil’s President Lula da Silva has just been elected for a fourth term.
This is a huge upset for the Flávio Bolsonaro campaign. No candidate since democracy was restored in 1988 has won the second round after not winning the first round of voting.
Voting was delayed for two hours after both campaigns complained about disruptions to voting, caused by the public transport system in some cities and bad weather.
Despite this, Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign had already raised doubts about the process before the result was announced.
Supporters of Bolsonaro were seen departing a watch party
We can bring you a bit more detail now on the results.
With 99.81% of votes counted, Lula has secured 51.76% of the vote, compared to Flávio Bolsonaro's 48.24%.Vanessa Buschschlüter
Latin America and Caribbean editor
This was a bitterly fought campaign.
It is Lula's fourth win in a presidential election, having served two terms as president from January 2003 to December 2010, and again from January 2023.
But the road to this win was not a smooth one.
Bolsonaro had beaten Lula in the first round on 4 October and many had not thought it possible for him to turn the result around in just three weeks.
He has also bucked a wider trend in Latin America, where voters have punished incumbents and turned to the right.
Across the region, larger countries such as Argentina, Chile and Colombia all now have conservative leaders at their helm.
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Brazilian President Lula has been re-elected, Brazil's electoral authority has declared.
This is the first time a president has overturned a first-round loss since the return of democracy in 1988.
More than 90% of votes have now been counted and President Lula remains in the lead, with 51.62% of the votes to Flávio Bolsonaro's 48.38%.
If Lula wins, this would be the first time a candidate has overturned a first-round loss in Brazil since the return of democracy in 1988.Ione Wells
Reporting from Brasília
I’m outside the house where Flávio Bolsonaro is watching the results in Brasilia.
A huge screen is set up, and the assumption is he was due to give a speech here.
As I walked in, I saw some supporters of Bolsonaro decked in the Brazilian flags and colours walking away looking quite despondent.
The official vote count is still under way in Brazil's presidential run-off, but pollster Datafolha projects that President Lula will win the election.
The result has not yet been declared by the electoral court, but with more than 80% of the vote counted Lula is marginally in the lead.
We may hear an official result relatively soon.
More than 60% of the votes have now been counted as Flávio Bolsonaro and President Lula da Silva are locked in a knife-edge contest to become Brazil's next president.
The country's Supreme Court (TSE) says 85, 893,756 votes have now been counted, representing 67.39% of the total vote.
We'll bring you the latest updates as counting continues across Brazil.
Polls have closed in Brazil's presidential election, with supporters of both candidates being seen on the country's streets this evening.
The delay of polls being closed means that the result of this year's election could be pushed back by several hours, BBC correspondent Ione Wells writes.
These photos show voters gathering in Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Brasília as they await the results this evening.
Polls have closed and results are coming in from across Brazil after a tense few hours and a last-minute voting extension.
With around 10% of votes counted, you can follow the latest results and the breakdown by state over on BBC News Brasil's election map.
It's still too early to be able to tell which way it is going to go, and with this election being one of the closest the country has ever seen, it is likely to be a while until a definite result comes in.
Gabriela Boccaccio
Live reporter
The electronic voting machines were already in boxes once the extension was announced
A polling station worker says no one knew what to do as a voting extension was announced across the country.
Sofia Duarte was volunteering for the election at a school in the city of São Paulo when she started seeing reports on social media about a possible voting extension.
"No one told us anything. So as usual, we wrapped things up at 17:00 (20:00 GMT). We printed the voting tallies, all in accordance with the protocol," Sofia tells BBC News.
She says the queue she stood in to deliver the electoral documents was not moving, at which point "we connected the dots that maybe we would have to reopen the machines – but how?"
Duarte asked an employee of the regional electoral court about the situation and says she was told "no one knew what was going on".
"No one knew how to act. This had never happened before and no one knew how to proceed," she says.
Sofia adds that they were told to stay at the school until 19:00 (22:00 GMT), but at 18:00 (21:00) they were told to handover the voting machines and leave.Ione Wells
Reporting from Brasília
Things here feel very tense.
We were supposed to have some results by now, but here at Brazil’s top electoral court a dramatic decision was taken to extend voting by two hours.
That was after concerns by both campaigns that public transport disruption and bad weather had affected voter turnout.
Their concerns are indicative of just how close they think this could be – and that they’re fighting for every vote. That is because in the last few days the polls have really narrowed – too close to call, the pollsters said.
But because of this eleventh hour decision some polling stations had already closed.
I suspect if the result is extremely close – this isn’t the last we will hear about that disruption and we could see attempted appeals.
Polls have closed for the second time in the Brazilian presidential election after the country's Supreme Court issued an extension of two hours across the country.
The vote had initially finished at 17:00 local time (20:00 GMT), but this was extended to 19:00 following a request made by President Lula's campaign in three cities in the state of Bahia – alleging voters had been affected by disruption to public transport.
Minister Cristiano Zanin later specified the extension only applied where voting has not yet been finalised, as some polling stations had already closed their machines at the original time of 17:00.
Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign had also requested for polls to stay open longer, saying bad weather as a result of heavy rains in several cities could have hindered voters.
We will bring you the latest updates as votes are counted here.
Speaking to journalists, Lula called for polls to stay open longer
In the last hour, polls in Brazil have been extended by two hours after a last-minute decision. But how did we get here?
We're hearing more now from the Supreme Court minister who granted a two-hour voting extension across the country.
In an additional note to his first statement, Minister Cristiano Zanin now says polls must remain open until 19:00 local time (22:00 GMT) only where voting has not yet been finalised.
As Brazil uses electronic voting machines, once they are closed, they cannot be re-opened. Some polling stations had already closed their machines at the original time of 17:00 (think of it as turning off a computer that cannot be turned back on), while others had remained open as people were still queuing at 17:00.
The minister now says that in polling stations where voting had already been finalised, the result will be counted as it was declared at 17:00. Meanwhile, at polling stations which hadn't yet closed all of their machines, voting can continue until the extended time of 19:00.
Several poll workers have told BBC Brasil that they had already been dismissed despite the polls being extended by two hours.
One worker says she saw a woman try to enter a school that had been used as a polling station after 17:00 local time, citing the minister's decision to extend the polls, but was prevented from voting.
The principal of a state school in Pirituba, a neighborhood in the western part of São Paulo, tells BBC Brasil his polling station had already closed and issued the ballot box reports when the local electoral office announced the extension.
He says there are no technical guidelines on how to reopen the ballot boxes, despite the Regional Electoral Court (TRE) ordering polling stations to remain open.
The principal of a school in the Limão neighbourhood of the city also said they had finished for the day, but the ballet boxes still remain at the polling station.
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