Follow-Up: Brazil Runoff Voting Extended Two Hours: Supreme Court Justice Orders Polls Open Until 7 p.m., Vote Count Paused
Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) Justice Cristiano Zanin ordered on October 25, in the country's presidential runoff, that voting be extended nationwide by two hours, minutes after polls had been due to close at 5 p.m. Brasilia time, Reuters reported. Polls will now stay open until 7 p.m. Brasilia time (6 p.m. ET, 3 p.m. PT), and Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) temporarily paused publication of the vote count after results had been released for just 0.25% of polling sections.
Reuters reported that Zanin granted a request from the campaign of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The Associated Press reported that Lula's campaign cited incidents affecting buses carrying voters in nine states. CNN reported that the campaign of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro had also asked for an extension in some areas, citing heavy rain in the south that made it difficult for voters to reach polling stations. Both campaigns had sought more time before the order was issued around the scheduled closing time.
The first figures released before the pause are not representative. In the TSE's initial snapshot, covering 0.25% of polling sections and 335,743 valid votes, Lula had 57.66% (193,574 votes) and Flávio Bolsonaro 42.34% (142,169 votes). Reuters reported that the electoral court stopped updating the count after the extension was ordered and that publication will resume once voting ends; a 0.25% sample cannot decide the runoff.
Brazilian media reported that Zanin later clarified that the extension applied only to voting machines that had not already been closed. Because the order arrived as some stations were completing their closing procedures, with machines already sealed and result records printed, its implementation caused confusion in several locations. Kássio Nunes, the Supreme Court justice who also heads the TSE, told reporters earlier that some cities were indeed short of buses.
The runoff was already exceptionally close before the extension. In the first round on October 4, Flávio Bolsonaro led Lula by 47% to 45%, a margin of about 2.2 million votes according to the TSE, with neither candidate winning a majority. Final polls before the runoff put the two candidates within the margin of error. Flávio Bolsonaro is the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he was monitoring the runoff; he did not endorse either candidate, though he previously praised Flávio Bolsonaro's first-round performance and called the election very important.
Once voting ends at the new closing time of 7 p.m. Brasilia time, publication of the count will resume, and the winner will be determined by the results published by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 巴西利亚的巴西最高法院（STF）大楼。图片：Alex Pereira，公共领域（PD-self），经Wikimedia Commons。The Supreme Federal Court (STF) building in Brasília, Brazil. Photo: Alex Pereira, public domain (PD-self), via Wikimedia Commons.
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