Brazil: Runoff Confirmed for October 25 as US Embassy and Consulates Reopen

October 5, 2026 — Update to our October 4 story. Brazil’s presidential election goes to a runoff on Sunday, October 25, between Senator Flávio Bolsonaro and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The US Embassy and consulates resumed normal operations, including consular services, on Monday. We found no reports of election-night unrest or transport disruption.

What changed

Result: with 99.97% of ballots counted, Flávio Bolsonaro had 47.04% of valid votes and Lula 45.15%, according to Agência Senado. Turnout was 78.92%.
Runoff: Sunday, October 25, with voting from 8 am to 5 pm Brasília time. Several states also hold runoffs for governor; the electoral court’s statement did not list them.
Security: the head of the electoral court closed the first round and said he expects the same calm in the second. The court counted 907 electoral-crime incidents nationwide, mostly illegal campaigning. Observer missions reported a normal vote.
US consular services: a State Department spokesperson told Brazilian media that the embassy in Brasília and the consulates in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre and Recife resumed normal operations on October 5. They had been suspended since Friday, October 2. How cancelled appointments will be rescheduled is TBA.

Government advisories

Canada: exercise a high degree of caution, with regional advisories. The page was last updated October 2 and warns of gatherings around October 4 and October 25.
United Kingdom: last updated September 29; no change.
United States: no change to the advisory level was found.

What it means for airline travelers

If you had a visa or passport appointment cancelled on October 2, watch your email and the embassy’s site for rescheduling. The embassy’s alert page would not open for us, so confirm before you travel to a consulate.
Expect rallies in the three weeks before October 25, especially in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasília. Avoid them, and allow extra time for airport transfers on rally days.
On October 25, traffic near polling places can be heavy and some services run short hours. Avoid tight same-day connections if you can.
Enroll in STEP (US) or Registration of Canadians Abroad for alerts during the runoff campaign.