Politics 23 October 2026

Brazilians in Portugal vote again on Sunday, and they backed Lula when Brazil didn't

More than 134,000 Brazilian voters registered in Portugal can vote in Sunday's presidential runoff, from 8am to 5pm in Lisbon, Porto and Faro. In the first round they gave Lula 52.45% and Flávio Bolsonaro 38.57%, the reverse of the national result.

Brazilians living in Portugal go back to the polls on Sunday 25 October for the presidential runoff between Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro. They arrive with a first-round result that looks nothing like their country’s.

On 4 October, voters registered in Portugal gave Lula 52.45% (26,401 votes) and Flávio Bolsonaro 38.57% (19,412), according to the Superior Electoral Court’s count. Back home it went the other way. With every section counted, Flávio finished first on 47.03% to the incumbent’s 45.16%.

Where and when

Polling stations open at 8am and close at 5pm, Portuguese time. Mind the clocks. Summer time ends that very night, when 2am becomes 1am, so anyone whose phone doesn’t update will turn up an hour early (on election day, that is the right mistake to make).

In Lisbon, voting takes place at the Cidade Universitária, split between the Reitoria, the Law Faculty and the Faculty of Letters. In Porto it is at the engineering school, ISEP, and in the Algarve at the Brazilian Consulate-General in Faro. Sections are the same as in the first round, and the Lisbon consulate keeps venues and document rules on its 2026 elections page.

What to bring

Any official photo ID will do. From the Portuguese side, your residence permit or, for dual nationals, the Portuguese citizen card or passport. From the Brazilian side, the RG, a driving licence (CNH), a passport or a professional card such as the OAB. The TSE’s e-Título app also counts if it shows your photo.

Turnout is the number to watch

More than 134,000 Brazilians are registered to vote in Portugal, one of the largest electorates outside Brazil, which will surprise nobody following how Portugal’s foreign-resident population has grown. Yet most of them stayed home in round one: abstention reached 63.56% in Lisbon and 66.62% in Faro.

Missing the first round does not stop anyone voting on Sunday. The absence still has to be justified, by 3 December, through e-Título or the TSE website. The campaign’s last televised debate was scheduled on Globo for Friday night, 23 October.

By Tomás Vasconcelos

Image: Superior Electoral Court of Brazil / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

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