SÃO PAULO, Brazil – Brazil’s final scheduled televised presidential debate before Sunday’s first-round election was canceled after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declined to participate and opposition candidate Flávio Bolsonaro withdrew shortly before the event.
The debate was scheduled for Thursday night on TV Globo, Brazil’s largest free-to-air broadcaster. It was expected to be the last major televised opportunity for presidential candidates to appear together before voters go to the polls on Oct. 4.
Globo canceled the event after a series of court decisions changed the format that had previously been agreed with the participating parties. The broadcaster said the rulings created legal uncertainty around the debate.
Brazil’s electoral authority says 12 presidential candidacies are registered for the 2026 election. The first round is scheduled for Oct. 4, with a second round on Oct. 25 if required.
Lula had already declined to attend
Lula’s campaign informed Globo before the event that the president would not participate.
His decision followed a campaign in which he had also declined other televised debates. Lula instead scheduled other campaign appearances, including an online broadcast at the same time as the Globo debate.
Lula has defended his decision not to attend debates by questioning the value of appearing onstage with candidates he considers to have substantially less support.
The decision meant that the debate would already take place without the incumbent president.
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Bolsonaro withdraws before the debate
Flávio Bolsonaro had initially agreed to participate.
He withdrew hours before the scheduled start of the event after the latest court decisions changed the debate’s format.
Bolsonaro said the changes amounted to censorship by the electoral court and announced that he would no longer attend. His campaign has also emphasized that Lula is the candidate he most wants to debate.
The withdrawal left Globo without either of the two candidates who had been at the center of expectations for the final debate.
Court rulings changed the debate format
Globo said two separate judicial decisions contributed to the cancellation.
One decision from the Superior Electoral Court, or TSE, prevented the broadcaster from displaying an empty podium reserved for Lula.
The agreed debate rules had allowed an absent candidate’s position to remain empty and permitted participating candidates to address questions to the candidate who did not attend.
Another decision, from the Supreme Federal Court, required Globo to include Renan Santos in the debate.
The broadcaster said the rulings changed arrangements that had already been agreed with the political parties and created what it described as legal uncertainty.
The judicial decisions should be distinguished from the candidates’ decisions not to attend. The courts changed aspects of the debate format; Lula and Bolsonaro separately chose not to participate.
Globo cancels the entire event
The debate was originally expected to include Bolsonaro, Augusto Cury, Ronaldo Caiado and Romeu Zema, with Lula having been invited but declining.
After Bolsonaro withdrew and the court decisions changed the agreed format, Globo canceled the entire broadcast rather than proceeding with the remaining candidates.
The broadcaster said its purpose in organizing debates was to allow candidates to discuss their proposals and give voters an opportunity to compare them. Globo said the successive judicial decisions immediately before the event made it impossible to proceed under the planned rules.
The cancellation was the first time Globo had canceled a presidential debate outright since it began organizing the events in 2002, according to Brazilian media reports.
Voters lose final televised comparison
The cancellation means Brazilian voters will not see the planned final Globo debate before Sunday’s first round.
Other presidential debates have taken place during the campaign, beginning in August, but the Globo event was expected to be the final major televised confrontation before voting.
The absence is particularly notable because Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro are the two candidates identified by recent polling coverage as the principal contenders for reaching a possible runoff. That description reflects current polling and campaign coverage, not a prediction of the election result.
The TSE lists 12 registered presidential candidacies, including Lula, Bolsonaro, Caiado, Zema, Cury and Santos.
Election moves to first-round voting
Brazil’s first-round vote will take place on Sunday, Oct. 4.
A candidate must meet the constitutional requirements for winning in the first round; otherwise, the two candidates receiving the most votes advance to a runoff scheduled for Oct. 25.
If a runoff is required, Lula and Bolsonaro could have additional opportunities to appear together during the three weeks between the two rounds.
For now, however, the planned Globo debate has ended without either candidate appearing.
The immediate development is therefore the cancellation of the country’s final scheduled televised presidential debate before the first-round vote, following the separate decisions by Lula and Bolsonaro not to participate and the court rulings that altered the event’s planned format.
Reporting Credit: Tribunal Superior Eleitoral; Supreme Federal Court; TV Globo; official Lula campaign statements; official Flávio Bolsonaro campaign statements; Brazil’s official electoral records. Secondary reporting from Associated Press, Reuters, CNN Brasil, Folha de S.Paulo and other established outlets was used for chronology and campaign context.
