Brazilian Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) Justice Cristiano Zanin, the judge who issued the sudden ruling on Sunday extending the voting times during the presidential runoff election, was socialist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s personal lawyer during his corruption trial – in which Lula was found guilty.
President Lula was reelected for a fourth four-year term on Sunday, narrowly defeating conservative Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. Lula’s surprise victory marked the first time in roughly four decades that a Brazilian candidate who lost in the first round of the election managed to ultimately win in the runoff. Lula lost against Bolsonaro in the October 4 first round of the election — however, the conservative Senator was not able to cross the 50-percent vote threshold to win in the first round.
Sunday’s election was largely marked by an unprecedented ruling issued by Justice Zanin extending the voting time by an additional two hours, leading to some voting stations closing at 7:00 p.m. (local time) rather than at 5:00 p.m. as the nation’s electoral regulations state.
Brazil’s top election authority, the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), took note of the ruling and extended the voting hours for an additional two hours, while accordingly delaying the vote tallying process until after 7:00 p.m. Local outlets, however, pointed out that Zanin reportedly ruled that only polling stations that had not already closed by the time of the ruling were to remain open for the extra two hours.
The order stems from a request issued by the Lula campaign, who requested the extension on grounds that an alleged bus shortage led to transportation issues that prevented voters from reaching their corresponding voting station. The affected areas, according to the request, were all in northeastern Brazil — an area widely considered to be a strong bastion of support for Lula and his far-left Workers’ Party (PT). The Brazilian outlet Poder 360 published a copy of Zanin’s ruling, which states that the STF became aware of the request at “4:32:49 p.m.” just minutes before the stablished 5:00 p.m. voting station closing time.
As Breitbart News noted on Sunday, critics of Zanin’s unprecedented ruling altering the closing hours of polling places allege that the Justice’s court order has “marred” the runoff election. The controversy and criticism over the ruling have been further fueled by the fact that Zanin was President Lula’s defense attorney during the trial of the socialist president that was part of the massive Operação Lava Jato (“Operation Car Wash”) corruption investigation.
As part of the broader Operation Car Wash investigation, Lula was ultimately charged, convicted, and sentenced in 2019 to roughly 20 years in prison on charges of misusing public funds during his first two presidential terms (2003-2010). However, in a highly controversial decision, the STF overturned his conviction on procedural grounds, allowing Lula to be released from prison. The Supreme Court’s ruling, however, did not present any new information or evidence that could exonerate Lula of the crimes he was convicted for.
The ruling nevertheless allowed Lula to run for president again in 2022, narrowly defeating then-incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence on dubious “crimes against democracy” charges.
President Lula began his third term on January 1, 2023. Months later, in June 2023, Lula nominated Zanin to the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF), presenting him as a replacement for former Justice Ricardo Lewandowski, who retired from the court earlier that year. Zanin was sworn in as an STF Justice just two months later, in August 2023.
Former Justice Lewandowski would go on to serve as Lula’s Justice Minister between February 2024 and January 2026 — himself replacing communist (Lula’s own descriptor) former Justice Minister Flávio Dino, who was also appointed to the STF by Lula in February 2024. Both Zanin and Dino were among the STF Justices who voted alongside “anti-fake news crusader” Justice Alexandre de Moraes to convict Jair Bolsonaro of “crimes against democracy” in 2025.
Lula’s reelection will see the socialist president begin a fourth presidential term on January 5, 2027. Jovem Pan pointed out that, throughout the following four years, Lula will be potentially able to appoint up to four new Supreme Court Ministers before his term ends on January 5, 2031.
The outlet detailed one of the four appointments would fill a position at the eleven-seat court that has remained vacant since October 2025 following Justice Luís Roberto Barroso’s early retirement from the court. Lula nominated current Attorney General Jorge Messias; the Brazilian Senate, however, rejected the nomination in April, marking the first time in over a century that a Supreme Court Justice nomination is rejected in Brazil.
The other three correspond to the impending retirements of Justices Luis Fux, Cármen Lúcia, and Gilmar Mendes, all of whom will turn 75 over the next years — the maximum retirement age for a man or woman to serve as a Supreme Court Justice in Brazil. Next year, a majority conservative Senate and Lower House will take office, a situation that may complicate Lula’s ability to have his nominees for new top court justices approved.
Concerns about Justice Zanin’s order appear to be present at the Superior Electoral Tribunal. CNN Brasil reported that TSE’s president, Kassio Nunes Marques, stated to reporters on Sunday that the ruling generated “difficulties” for the nation’s electoral process. Nunes Marques, however, reportedly avoided directly criticizing the order itself but affirmed, “It wasn’t a conventional decision. Everything was unusual.”
The TSE president reportedly detailed that the electoral authority received the extension request at around 3:30 p.m., and immediately sought technical information from the Regional Electoral Court of Bahia, one of the states listed as “affected” in the Lula campaign’s request. According to Nunes Marques, there was no rule authorizing the extension of voting hours, and there had never been an extension of this kind in the court’s history.
Per CNN Brasil, Nunes Marques further stated that Justice Zanin’s decision to extend the voting hours was issued after 5:00 p.m. — a situation that required changes to vote-counting procedures and changes to security measures for poll workers nationwide. By then, the TSE president pointed out, “thousands” of voting stations had already closed and could not be reopened, as the electronic voting machines prevent the reopening of their systems once they are closed.
“It would not be possible, in just a few hours, to reach a definitive conclusion that no side effects, especially of a technological nature, arising from a judicial decision would significantly impact the vote count,” Nunes Marques reportedly stated.
Despite the difficulties caused by the court order, Nunes Marques said that the vote counting proceeded without compromising the electoral process.
“I’ll say it again: there were no changes resulting from the court’s decision. We have absolute confidence in the entire electoral process,” he said.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.