Brazil's Federal Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin has issued an urgent ruling extending voting hours across the entire country by two hours until 7 pm Brasilia time, following separate emergency petitions lodged by both presidential candidates.
The decision comes after incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and conservative Senator Flavio Bolsonaro cast their ballots early on Sunday morning in a fiercely contested runoff election that opinion polls indicate is locked in a statistical tie.
President Lula initially petitioned the Superior Electoral Court and the Supreme Court to extend voting in crucial metropolitan strongholds, including Salvador, the capital of Bahia with nearly 2 million registered voters, and Sao Paulo, home to more than 9 million voters.
"What we want is an election done honestly and with everyone having their right to vote," Lula said in a public address, urging voters to remain in queues.
"Wait, and vote, because democracy must win."
Transit arrests
The left's legal filing followed severe transit bottlenecks in Salvador, where municipal authorities reported that at least 75 public buses were prevented from leaving depots.
Salvador City Hall alleged that union workers affixed stickers featuring the Workers' Party (PT) logo and candidate number 13 onto public buses, breaching federal election advertising statutes.
The Bahia Regional Electoral Court issued an immediate arrest warrant for Salvador's Secretary of Mobility Pablo Souza over an electoral crime linked to the fleet reduction; however, Federal Police could not execute the warrant as Souza is currently in Paris on an official trade mission.
Shortly after Lula's filing, Flavio Bolsonaro's Liberal Party (PL) submitted a parallel motion requesting polls remain open until 7 pm across 17 municipalities in Sao Paulo, Parana, and Santa Catarina, where torrential rain and flooding severely disrupted voter access.
Justice Zanin unified the competing claims, granting a blanket nationwide extension to guarantee uniform voting conditions.
