US embassy report calls Lula's victory "definitive"
A document sent to the State Department, according to Folha, says the extended voting hours did not change the outcome and that observers have no doubts about the election.
Translated from the Portuguese original by the Panorama newsroom. Read in Portuguese
Summary written by the Panorama newsroom from the sources listed below. Facts are attributed to the original publications.
The US Embassy in Brasília sent American agencies, including the State Department, a report describing Lula's (PT) runoff victory on Sunday (25) as "definitive" and "surprising," according to Folha de S.Paulo, which had access to the text. The document, sent on Monday (26), is titled "Elections in Brazil: Lula is elected in surprising but definitive result; Flávio Bolsonaro considers result impossible to accept."
According to the newspaper, the diplomatic mission notes that Lula won by about 4.4 million votes and that voting was mostly peaceful, despite public transport disruptions and difficulties reaching polling places in the Northeast and South. Both Lula's and Flávio's campaigns asked the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) to extend voting hours, and Justice Cristiano Zanin of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) authorized two extra hours after 5 p.m., which caused confusion because some polling stations did not receive the order.
The report cites the TSE as saying that only 34,000 votes were cast after 5 p.m., about 0.03% of the total, a number too small to change the margin. The court's president, Kassio Nunes Marques, said the extension had no significant influence. According to the embassy, OAS observers said they had "no doubt about the results," although they considered the organizers' internal communication unsatisfactory, and foreign missions saw the extended hours as poorly managed but the election as orderly.
Folha reports that the document says Flávio, who uses the extension as his main argument, condemned the STF decision and vowed to contest the result, and that other conservative leaders acknowledged Lula's victory. PL members, the embassy says, privately voiced concern that the challenge could trigger a political crisis and damage the party.
The newspaper stresses that the assessment contrasts with statements by President Donald Trump, who questions the process without presenting evidence of irregularities capable of compromising the result. On Thursday (29), he again called the election a "disgrace," but said he intends to talk to Lula.