Brazil’s 2026 election: Who is running for president?

Brazil’s presidential election will bring 13 candidates before voters on October 4, as the country prepares to choose its president and vice president for the next four years.

The candidate list includes incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party, Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party, and Augusto Cury of Avante. Other contenders are Ronaldo Caiado of the Social Democratic Party, Romeu Zema of Novo, Renan Santos of the Missão Movement, Hertz Dias of the Unified Socialist Workers’ Party, Edmilson Costa of the Brazilian Communist Party, Clariana Barao of Christian Democracy, Pablo Marçal of the Brazilian Renovating Labor Party, Rui Costa Pimenta of the Workers’ Cause Party, Wilson Grassi of the Democrats, and Samara Martins of Popular Unity.

If no candidate wins more than half of the valid votes in the first round, the two leading candidates will face each other in a runoff on October 25. Voting will take place through electronic ballot boxes. One terminal identifies and authorizes voters, with biometric checks available on some models, while another records the vote numerically.

A Nexus poll published Monday put Lula at 39% and Flávio Bolsonaro at 33%. Augusto Cury ranked third with 11%, after gaining nine points from the institute’s previous survey. Ronaldo Caiado had 5%, Renan Santos 3%, and Romeu Zema 1%. In a hypothetical runoff, Lula stood at 46% and Bolsonaro at 45%, a statistical tie.