Based on data from Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court, the House of Representatives reported that, among the 513 federal representatives elected this Sunday (Oct. 4), 183 will serve their first term. This figure represents a renewal rate of 35.67 percent of the House’s members. The lawmakers will represent the states and the Federal District during the 58th legislative session, from February 1, 2027, to January 31, 2031.

According to the House of Representatives, the percentage of new members (35.6%) remains in line with the House’s average renewal rate of 39.3 percent compared with the previous election.

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Meanwhile, a total of 301 federal lawmakers were reelected, representing 58.6 percent of those elected in October 2022. There are also 29 former federal representatives from previous legislatures who have returned to the House.

Black and brown elected officials

Candidates who self-identified as black or brown won 135 seats in the House of Representatives, accounting for 26.3 percent of the 513 federal lawmakers. This figure represents a 2.9 percent decline from the 139 black and brown federal legislators elected in 2022.

In terms of race and skin color, the Superior Electoral Court’s database recorded a total of 10,206 candidacies by black people for all elective offices in the 2026 election, accounting for 49.64 percent of the total.

Indigenous people

Among those elected who self-identified as indigenous, only three candidates secured four-year terms in the House of Representatives to continue advocating for indigenous peoples and their territories. One of them is Sônia Guajajara, the current head of the first Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, created during President Lula’s administration. She was elected by the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL).

With this result, the number of indigenous representatives has shrunk to approximately 0.58 percent of the 513 legislators, compared with the 2022 election, when five indigenous candidates were elected to the House.

In total, the Electoral Court registered 73 candidacies by indigenous people for tha House of Representatives.

Gender

On Sunday (4), 108 women were elected to the next session of the House of Representatives, making it the largest female delegation in the House’s history.

This figure represents an 18.68 percent increase compared with 2022 - that is, 17 more women than the 91 elected in the previous election.

Damares Medina, a lawyer and professor with a Ph.D. in Constitutional Law, celebrates this historic number of women, even though they hold different political positions on key issues.

“Because it doesn’t matter - each in her own way - they convey the message that a woman’s place is wherever she wants it to be.”

Party

The Liberal Party (PL) won the largest bloc in the House and expanded its delegation to 121 legislators for the next legislative session. That is 24 more than in the previous election.

Medina explains the significance of having the largest delegation in the House of Representatives. “It’s important because every seat is power. Each one represents influence, dynamics, and the factors that will determine how authority is distributed in the Congress.”

The second-largest caucus was the Brazil of Hope Federation, comprising the Workers’ Party (PT), the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), and the Green Party (PV). It has 88 representatives, six more than in the previous election.

The lawyer interviewed by Rádio Nacional explains that the formation of large party blocs ensures that priorities are addressed. “Once formed, these blocs wield immense power over budget allocation and the distribution of parliamentary amendments.”

Damares Medina also interprets the message sent by voters this Sunday by electing more lawmakers from the conservative spectrum to Congress, marking a significant shift in the balance of power between opposing political camps. She notes that this is not a recent development.

“If we analyze the historical data since the 1988 [Federal] Constitution, we can see that, little by little, the left wing has been losing the ideological battle and the intellectual debate,” said the constitutional lawyer.

Top-voted candidates

The election also set new voting records. Nikolas Ferreira (PL), a 30-year-old congressman reelected from Minas Gerais state, received more than 3.11 million votes, making him the most-voted lawmaker in the country’s history. He surpassed his own record from the previous election in 2022, when he was also the country’s most-voted candidate, with 1.47 million votes.

Coming in second among the top vote-getters for the House of Representatives, with 3,038,438 votes, was Lucas Pavanato (PL), 28, who currently serves as a city councilor in São Paulo and is a YouTuber. His total was nearly double that of the runner-up in the state, Congresswoman Erika Hilton (PSOL), who was reelected with 1,596,472 votes. The legislator, who currently chairs the House’s Commission for the Defense of Women’s Rights, set a record for the most votes received by a female member of the House.

*Priscilla Mazenotti, a reporter for Rádio Nacional/EBC, contributed to this report.

The president of Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court, Judge Kassio Nunes Marques, stated Sunday (Oct. 4) that no irregularities were found in the first round of the elections that could be characterized as foreign interference in the election.

At a press conference aimed at presenting an overview of the Electoral Court’s work on election day, he said that international observers who monitored the election confirmed its transparency and that it proceeded normally.

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“We did not experience any serious incidents, the weather-related risks [were] ruled out, and we did not receive any alerts from the various departments of the Superior Electoral Court regarding foreign interference. We did not find any evidence of intervention,” he stated.

Earlier, Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues confirmed that the body had opened an investigation into alleged foreign interference in the election.

Last week, the country’s Attorney-General’s Office called on the Federal Police and the Prosecutor-General’s Office to investigate alleged funding from the Donald Trump administration to meddle with the Brazilian elections and delegitimize the Supreme Court.

The move was unveiled after the UK newspaper The Guardian reported that the US government had allocated USD 1 million to promote a campaign against the Brazilian top court.

The president of the Superior Electoral Court, Kassio Nunes Marques, said on Sunday (Oct. 4) that he intends to take steps to reduce voter abstention in the second round.

According to the Electoral Court’s vote-tallying system, 21.08 percent of voters abstained in the first round, or 33.4 million people.

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“The idea is to intensify and refine all available mechanisms so that we can reduce this percentage in the second round,” Marques pointed out.

The first round also recorded 2.2 million blank and 3.6 million invalid ballots. Neither is counted among the valid votes.

The electorate totaled 158.7 million eligible voters, while 125 million cast a ballot.

Record high

The abstention rate recorded in the first round was the highest since 1998, when it stood at 21.5 percent.

In the first round of the 2022 presidential election, 20.95 percent of eligible voters did not cast a ballot.

Flávio Bolsonaro (of the Liberal Party, PL) and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (of the Workers’ Party, PT) will go head-to-head in the second round of Brazil’s presidential election. The two candidates received the most votes in the first round, held this Sunday (Oct. 4), as per data from the Superior Electoral Court.

Flávio Bolsonaro finished the vote count in first place, with 47.03 percent of the valid votes, equivalent to 56,103,033 votes. Lula came in second, with 45.16 percent, or 53,870,724 votes.

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As of 11:21 p.m., 99.99 percent of the ballots had been tallied.

The presidential election is decided in a runoff when no candidate obtains more than half of the valid votes in the first round. The runoff is scheduled for October 25.

Flávio Bolsonaro

At a press conference following the announcement of the results, the presidential hopeful said the outcome showed that “Brazil wants change.”

“That’s my take on what happened today. I was very happy with the results across all regions. Nearly 56 million Brazilians – men and women alike – cast their vote of confidence in change. I was very happy with the number of Brazilians who went to the polls, did not stay home, and wanted this change,” he declared.

“I am happy about the real possibility that, in three weeks, Brazil will give a definitive answer that it wants a modern government, with fewer ministries. A government that will appoint at least four justices to the Supreme Court, who will not try to interfere in elections,” he added.

“I am the only candidate who has committed to ending re-election. I only need one term to put the Brazilian people at the center of my government, so that I can solve Brazil’s real problems. I want the opportunity to take care of Brazil, to take care of the Brazilian people.”

Lula

Brazil’s president and candidate for re-election gave a speech around 9:40 p.m. in an auditorium at the Renaissance Hotel, near Paulista Avenue in São Paulo.

Lula thanked voters for their support and said he had expected to win in the first round. He noted that the result was unexpected but that now, in the runoff, he would have the opportunity to show the public who the best candidate is.

“We’ve just learned a lesson about democracy in Brazil through the Brazilian people’s vote,” he said right at the start of his speech. “I’ll admit to you that I was convinced I was going to win the election in the first round. But I’ve thought that before,” he said. “But we have the second round, and the second round is the moment of truth. It’s time for us to show the true picture of Brazil today and the Brazil we want. So starting tomorrow, we’ll begin a new campaign,” he added.

Lula criticized his opponent, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, and said that in the runoff election, it will be possible to shed more light on the PL candidate’s background.

“On the other side, we have nothing but uncertainty, with a background marked by a shadowy past. There is nothing that points to a promising future for Brazilian society. There is no background on the father, no background on the son, and we don’t know if there will be any background on other relatives. It’s a shadowy background, with shadowy connections, with extremely serious suspicions, involving ties to militias, organized crime, and the murders in Rio de Janeiro,” he said.

Brazilians will go to the polls today (Oct. 4) to elect a president, governors, senators, and federal, state and district representatives. Approximately 158.7 million voters are eligible to vote, according to the Electoral Court.

Voters’ choices will determine who holds the offices responsible for decisions that directly affect people’s lives, including in areas such as health, education, public safety, transportation, infrastructure, and the economy.

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Voting will take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Brasília time); cell phones remain prohibited in the voting booth.

If a runoff is required for the presidential and gubernatorial races, it will be held on October 25.

Candidates to be elected

This year, voters will cast six votes: for president (and vice president), governor (and vice governor), two senators, a federal representative, and a state representative - or a district representative in the Federal District.

The elections will determine the composition of the federal and state executive branches and renew part of the legislative branch starting January 1, 2027. Representatives serve four-year terms, while senators serve eight-year terms.

Voter profile

The 2026 elections will feature the largest electorate in Brazilian history. Of the total number of eligible voters, 141,321,493 have already registered their biometric data, equivalent to 89.01 percent of the electorate, according to the Electoral Court.

According to the Superior Electoral Court, 605,800 voters are 16 years old and just over 1 million are 17. Voting is optional for both age groups.

Number of candidates

This election is also marked by a large number of candidates. The Electoral Court has registered approximately 21,000 candidates. More than half (11,700) are running for seats in state legislative assemblies.

A total of 7,803 candidates are running for seats in the House of Representatives.

Achievement of democracy

The right to vote has not always been available to all Brazilians. Throughout the country’s history, different groups have been excluded from the electoral process. Women, illiterate people, indigenous peoples, and the poor were, at various times, barred from participating in elections.

More recently, during the military dictatorship (1964–1985), a period marked by institutional disruption, voting and political rights were restricted, candidacies were revoked, and certain offices came to be filled through indirect elections.

Illiterate citizens regained the right to vote in 1985. Their right to vote was enshrined in the 1988 Federal Constitution.

In this context, the Electoral Court is responsible for organizing the electoral process in a way that guarantees the exercise of the right to vote as a pillar of Brazilian democracy.

In institutional material from its “Voto Limpo” (Clean Vote) series, the Superior Electoral Court describes the vote as “the highest expression of citizenship” and emphasizes that it gives citizens the freedom to choose who will govern the country.

Nearly 1 million Brazilians registered to vote abroad are eligible to vote in the 2026 elections. The Superior Electoral Court says 918,876 voters are registered in 134 countries, representing just over 0.5 percent of Brazil’s approximately 158.7 million eligible voters.

Brazilians living abroad vote only for president and vice president.

Notícias relacionadas:

• Brazilian army simulates cyber defense measures ahead of elections.
• Brazil’s 2026 elections see record number of indigenous candidates.
• OAS to send international mission to monitor elections in Brazil.

The number of Brazilians eligible to vote abroad has grown steadily. From 2010 to 2026, the number increased by 358 percent.

In 2010, there were about 210,000 registered voters abroad, rising to 354,000 in 2014. The number reached 500,000 in 2018 and nearly 700,000 in 2022.

Journalist Victoria Duarte, 30, is among these voters. A master’s student at the University of Niagara Falls, she has lived in Ontario, Canada, since August 2025. This will be her first time participating in a Brazilian election from abroad.

“I wanted to vote, even though I live abroad, because I know how important these elections are for my country’s future. I went through the entire process required to do so,” she told Agência Brasil.

Polling stations

To vote, Duarte and other Brazilian friends will have to travel to Toronto, where the nearest polling station is located.

According to the Brazilian Electoral Court, polling stations will be set up in 186 cities abroad. They will operate primarily at Brazilian consulates and embassies, but may also be located in schools, hotels, and other venues.

Living overseas has strengthened Duarte’s bond with Brazil. “I’ve become more patriotic and proud of my country. Anyone who lives abroad knows this because they have something to compare it with,” she said.

The countries with the largest Brazilian voter populations are the United States (265,400), Portugal (134,700), Japan (88,300), Canada (46,400), and Germany (41,500).

Profile

According to the Electoral Court, women account for 57 percent of registered voters outside Brazil, while men account for 43 percent. In terms of marital status, single voters make up the largest share, at 52 percent of the total. Married voters account for 42 percent, divorced voters for 6 percent, and widowed voters for 1 percent. (Figures do not total 100 percent due to rounding.)

The voter registry also lists 6,614 people with disabilities, representing 0.72 percent of the electorate.

With regard to educational attainment, 38 percent of voters residing abroad have completed higher education, the highest share among the recorded education levels. Those who have completed high school account for 29 percent, while those with some higher education but no degree account for 13 percent.

Voters who have not completed high school account for 10 percent, followed by those who have completed elementary school (5%), those who have not completed elementary school (3%), and those who can only read and write (1%).

As for age groups, voters aged 40 to 44 make up the largest group, followed by those aged 45 to 49 and 35 to 39.

Polarization

Duarte notes that Brazil’s political polarization is also evident among Brazilians living overseas.

“In general, people who come to Canada are better off financially and, as a result, tend to be more conservative. But there are also many young people here who are more progressive and tend to vote for the left,” she explained.

Justification for absence from voting

Voters who are abroad on Election Day and do not cast their ballots may justify their absence at one of the polling stations set up outside Brazil or through the e-Título app.

“There will be no polling stations designated exclusively for voters seeking to justify their absence. In-person voting may take place only at polling stations equipped with electronic voting machines,” the Court stated.