Brazil extends voting hours nationwide amid runoff confusion

Voting in Brazil's presidential runoff was scheduled to close at 17:00 local time, but Supreme Court judge Cristiano Zanin extended it nationwide until 19:00. The decision followed complaints about transport difficulties and heavy rains that blocked roads and damaged at least one polling station roof.

The Workers' Party initially requested a two-hour extension in Salvador, São Paulo and nine states, citing transport problems. Party president Edinho Silva said voters who rely on buses were affected and claimed there was clear interference in the electoral process.

“Beyond noncompliance with the law, there is clear interference in the electoral process. Those who need the bus are our electoral base.”

In Salvador, at least 75 buses were prevented from leaving terminals after Lula campaign stickers were attached to the vehicles. The Municipal Mobility Secretariat attributed the act to union groups.

Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign later made the same request, citing bad weather and landslides. Zanin granted the extension across the entire country, not only in the areas covered by the original requests.

The Superior Electoral Court ordered vote counting to pause until 19:00, but the order came after results from 1,225 polling stations, representing 0.25 percent of the total, had already been published on its website.

Voters reported arriving after 17:00 to find some schools closed because the extension order had not reached them. International outlets including Público, Clarín, The New York Times and El País highlighted the controversy and uncertainty over how late-arriving voters would be handled.

The runoff features incumbent president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and senator Flávio Bolsonaro. A second round is held when no candidate receives more than 50 percent of valid votes.