Brazil held the first round of its presidential election on 4 October 2026. The country will vote for president again on 25 October, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) has confirmed. The second round follows a standing rule of Brazil’s electoral system: a first-round leader does not necessarily win the presidency. Here is how the process works.
What does it take to win in the first round?
Brazil elects its president and vice-president together. Under the country’s election law, a presidential candidate must receive an absolute majority of valid votes to win in the first round. That means more than half of votes counted for candidates. Blank and null votes are recorded but do not count towards this majority.
This distinction matters when several candidates are on the ballot. Someone can receive more votes than any other candidate and still fall short of the required majority. In that case, the election moves to a second round between the two candidates who received the most votes.
What happens in the second round?
The runoff is a new vote, not an addition to the first-round totals. The two leading candidates from the first round appear in the presidential contest again, and the first-round votes do not carry over. The candidate who receives the majority of valid votes in the second round wins. The TSE’s explanation of the presidential election rule sets out these steps.
For 2026, that second vote is scheduled for Sunday, 25 October. Each round is treated separately. A registered voter who missed the first round can still vote in the second, according to the TSE’s voter guidance.
How are votes cast and counted?
The presidential vote is direct and secret. Voters use electronic voting machines, which display the candidate’s name and photograph and the running mate for the presidential choice under the 2026 voting rules. Brazilians registered to vote abroad can also participate in the presidential election, subject to the applicable overseas voter rules.
When voting closes, each machine counts the votes from its polling section and produces a Boletim de Urna, a record of that section’s result. A printed copy is displayed at the polling place. The section results are transmitted and added together in a separate step called totalisation. The TSE then publishes the results and the underlying section records, which people can compare. The court describes this path from machine to published result.
The key to understanding the 25 October vote is that it starts afresh. The first round determined who entered the runoff; the second determines which presidential ticket receives the required majority of valid votes.
