Brazil Supreme Court justice orders runoff polls kept open nationwide until 7 p.m. Brasília time

As of 5:09 p.m. ET, Oct. 25, 2026

Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) Justice Cristiano Zanin on Sunday ordered voting in the presidential runoff extended by two hours, to 7 p.m. Brasília time (6 p.m. ET), in every polling section in the country, directing the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to carry it out. Polls had been scheduled to close at 5 p.m. Brasília time.

"Determino prorrogação por duas horas, até as 19h, horário de Brasília, do encerramento do recebimento dos votos em todas as seções de todo o Brasil, cabendo ao TSE dar cumprimento," Zanin wrote, according to the decision as quoted by g1 and O Globo. The decision said the complaint reached the court at 4:32 p.m. Brasília time and cited "the evident urgency of the measure."

Zanin granted a request from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's campaign. Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign separately asked the TSE for more limited extensions in states affected by rain, O Globo reported. O Globo said TSE President Kassio Nunes Marques had not yet ruled on the request filed at the electoral court, where electoral prosecutors opposed a two-hour extension. The TSE had not publicly said how it would apply Zanin's order. Counting had already begun at some machines before the order, g1, O Globo and Metrópoles reported.

The ruling followed a day of complaints about reduced bus service in several cities. In Salvador, Bahia, the president of the state's Regional Electoral Court (TRE-BA) ordered the arrest of municipal mobility secretary Pablo Souza after reports that about 75 city buses were kept in garages, and ordered full service restored under threat of fines of R$1 million per hour, according to Agência Brasil and Reuters. The order had not been carried out: Souza is in Paris on an official trip, and city hall said he would turn himself in Monday, Brazilian outlets reported. He is accused, not convicted, of an electoral crime. Salvador Mayor Bruno Reis (União Brasil) said buses were held because they carried "13" stickers, the Workers' Party's ballot number, according to Folha de S.Paulo and Metrópoles.

Earlier Sunday, Kassio Nunes Marques gave the Bahia court and electoral prosecutors 30 minutes to report on public transit in the state; that order did not grant an extension. Lula's coalition had asked the TSE to keep polls open until 7 p.m. in three Bahia cities: Salvador, Feira de Santana and Lauro de Freitas.

What is not known

It is not yet known how the TSE will apply the order, whether the TSE will rule separately on the extension requests filed there, or how the extension will affect the timing of results.