Brazil chooses this Sunday, October 25, between Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro. To follow the day from Spain, there are two key times: 12:00, when voting begins in Brazilian territory, and 21:00, from which the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) will start to disseminate the results. In the Canary Islands, it will be 11:00 and 20:00, respectively.
The difference with Brasília is reduced to four hours in the Peninsula after the change to winter time this morning. Therefore, the closing of the Brazilian polls, set for 17:00 Brasília time, corresponds to nine in the evening in Madrid. There is no predetermined time to know the winner: it will depend on the progress of the tally and the distance between the candidates.
More than 158 million voters are called to vote. Lula, from the Workers' Party, seeks reelection; Flávio Bolsonaro, from the Liberal Party, aims to reach the Presidency for the first time.
Where to follow the elections in Brazil live
The main source for checking the counting is the official results portal of the TSE. The Brazilian Electoral Justice Results application is also available.
The platform allows checking the votes of each candidate, the progress of the tally, and the data by state and municipality. It is important to select the second round of October 25 and the presidential election to avoid confusing it with the gubernatorial elections that are also held in some territories.
For those who prefer a broadcast, the official TSE channel on YouTube begins its coverage at 07:45 Brasília time: 11:45 Peninsula time and 10:45 in the Canary Islands. From 17:00 Brazilian time, the programming will focus on the results.
Brazil elections, hour by hour from Spain
The times in this table already incorporate the Spanish time change. The time slots after the closing are a tracking guide: they do not imply that there is a percentage of counting or an announcement of a winner expected for each hour.
| Peninsula and Balearic Islands | Canary Islands | Brasilia | What happens and what to look out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:00 | 10:00 | 07:00 | Preparation of the polling stations and checks prior to opening. |
| 11:45 | 10:45 | 07:45 | Official broadcast of the TSE begins on YouTube. |
| 12:00 | 11:00 | 08:00 | Simultaneous opening of voting in Brazilian territory. |
| 13:00–19:00 | 12:00–18:00 | 09:00–15:00 | Voting in progress. Follow official communications and incidents; there are still no national results. |
| 20:00 | 19:00 | 16:00 | Last ordinary hour of voting. Check that the portal shows the presidential runoff. |
| From 21:00 | From 20:00 | From 17:00 | Expected closure and start of results dissemination. Voters who are in line will be able to vote. |
| 22:00 | 21:00 | 18:00 | Check how much has been counted and which states are more advanced. There is no guaranteed recount percentage. |
| 23:00 | 22:00 | 19:00 | Compare the vote gap and the pending territories. Pay attention to TSE communications. |
| 00:00 on Monday | 23:00 on Sunday | 20:00 on Sunday | Check if the result already allows identifying the winner. There is no fixed time to announce it. |
Sources: electoral calendar and official programming of the Superior Electoral Court of Brazil. Spanish hours with winter time. The table describes voting in Brazil; electoral sections abroad have their own local times.
The opening and closing are coordinated with the time of Brasilia throughout Brazilian territory. The TSE specifies that voters who are waiting in line at closing time will be able to vote.
Before 21:00: what can be known and what cannot
During the day, relevant information will be the development of voting, the problems reported by the authorities, and the statements of the candidates. Images of crowded polling places do not allow deducing by themselves who is better mobilizing their voters.
A survey should not be confused with the counting. Official results correspond to votes actually registered and processed; a poll remains an estimate.
The first round offers a reference, but not an advantage that is automatically preserved. In the data published by the TSE with 99.99% of the ballots counted, Flávio Bolsonaro obtained 47.03% and Lula, 45.16%. This Sunday, voting takes place again and those votes do not add to the result of the second round.
From 21:00: look at the counted percentage before the leader
The first name that appears in front does not have to be the winner. The results are incorporated as the Electoral Justice receives and processes the data from the ballots: they are not a sample designed to represent the whole of Brazil.
To interpret each update, it is advisable to look at three elements together: the percentage of totalization, the vote advantage, and the territorial origin of the pending results.
A hypothetical example helps to understand it. A two-point advantage with a small part of the count has a different meaning than the same difference when there are only a few votes left to incorporate. And if the pending territories vote differently from those already counted, the distance can widen or narrow.
São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio: the territories that should be opened on another screen
São Paulo gathers 21.48% of the Brazilian electorate; Minas Gerais, 10.32%; and Rio de Janeiro, 8.10%, according to the figures published by the TSE. Together, they concentrate nearly four out of every ten voters. Bahia and Paraná complete the group of the five states with the most voters.
Their size justifies closely following them, but Brazil does not elect the president through an electoral college like that of the United States. Winning a state does not deliver a separate package of votes: what counts is the national sum of valid votes.
That is why both the margin and the winner of each territory are so important. To read the count, it is more useful to observe how many votes of advantage each state contributes and how many are left to be counted than to count how many states appear in the color of a candidate.
When it will be possible to know who has won
The one who obtains the most valid votes in the second round will win. Blank and null votes are published in the statistics, but they are not included in the percentage that decides the Presidency.
The result may be mathematically resolved before reaching 100%, but there is no guaranteed hour. The reference will be the information from the TSE and the impossibility of pending votes altering the winner.
Participation will also help explain the outcome, although its territorial distribution will need to be examined. A greater or lesser national abstention, by itself, does not demonstrate which candidate has benefited. The complete reading will come from combining the result, the regional margins, and who finally went to the polls.