Brazil's second-round presidential election on October 25 saw an unusually high turnout among voters over 70, many of whom had skipped the first round in early October. According to political journalist José Roberto de Toledo, 1.4 million of the 3 million extra voters who participated in the runoff were over 70, a statistically measurable shift. Voting is mandatory in Brazil only for those aged 18 to 69, making the elderly turnout voluntary.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won the runoff against far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, recovering from a first-round loss with 10.3 million additional votes. At his 81st birthday party, Lula described elderly voters, including those in their 80s, 90s and 100s being brought to polling centres by relatives or carers, as "unsung heroes" and called the images "the most powerful and human image I've ever seen during an election."
Lula's comeback marked the first time since Brazil's return to democracy in the 1980s that a first-round loser won a runoff. Toledo attributed the swing to Lula primarily to fear rather than age. Voters who had backed other candidates in the first round as a protest against Lula's Worker's Party chose Lula in the runoff when faced with a straight choice between him and Bolsonaro, viewing him as a lower-risk, more predictable option. Toledo noted that Bolsonaro's remarks about "re-democratising" the already democratic country alienated voters, stoking fears he aspired to authoritarian rule. The former president Jair Bolsonaro, Flávio's father, is currently serving a 27-year sentence for plotting to seize power after losing the 2022 election to Lula.
Election experts identified multiple factors in Lula's recovery, including a sharp increase in welfare benefits before the vote, a digital mobilisation through WhatsApp that grew from 50,000 to nearly 11 million members in less than a month, and student-led street protests across Brazil.