General elections will be held in Brazil on 4 October 2026 to elect the president, vice president, members of the National Congress, the governors, vice governors, and legislative assemblies of all federative units, and the district council of Fernando de Noronha.

If no candidate for president or governor receives a majority of the valid votes in the first round, a runoff election is held on 25 October.

Incumbent president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party is eligible for a fourth term.

Lula attempted to run for the presidency for a third non-consecutive term in 2018, but his candidacy was denied by the Superior Electoral Court due to his previous conviction on corruption charges in 2017.

A series of court rulings led to his release from prison in 2019, followed by the annulment of his conviction and restoration of his political rights by 2021.

Lula won the 2022 election by the closest margin in Brazilian history, defeating incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro by 1.8% (or 2,139,645 votes).

At the same time, Bolsonaro, elected in 2018, became the first incumbent president to lose a bid for a second term since the 1997 constitutional amendment allowing consecutive re-election.

The controversial 2016 impeachment of Rousseff removed her from office due to administrative misconduct, and she was succeeded by her vice president, Michel Temer of the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement.

In 2017, Operation Car Wash controversially resulted in Lula being convicted on charges of corruption by judge Sergio Moro and arrested, which prevented his intended candidacy in the 2018 Brazilian presidential election, despite his substantial lead in the polls.

This was followed by the dismissal or resignation of many members of the Bolsonaro administration,[8] including Moro, whom he had appointed as Minister of Justice and Public Safety.

These elections are held using open list, proportional representation, with seats allocated using integer quotients and the D'Hondt method.

[35] In some sparsely populated areas, such as indigenous territories, the installation and use of voting stations requires extensive travel and logistics.

[36] Voting stations were also installed in 160 locations in other countries, mostly in Brazilian diplomatic missions, for citizens residing abroad.

[33] The electronic system is subject to extensive tests, including on machines randomly selected from actual voting stations on election day, witnessed by political parties to rule out fraud.

[38] The system delivers the complete election results usually a few hours after voting ends, which is extremely fast for such a large population as Brazil.

At the same time, the system does not create a physical record of individual votes to allow a full election recount.