On Sunday, Brazil’s presidential run-off election faced a significant procedural disruption when Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin issued an order to extend voting hours by two hours. The directive was delivered just minutes after the official 5 p.m. Brasilia time deadline had passed, leaving election authorities in a state of uncertainty.

Reports indicate that the sudden change caused logistical confusion across the country. Election officials were left to determine whether they were required to reopen polling stations that had already begun the process of closing or if they should proceed with the transmission of voting machine data for counting.

Justice Zanin, who previously served as a personal lawyer for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva before his appointment to the Supreme Court in 2023, issued the order under circumstances that have drawn attention to the judiciary's role in the electoral process. While the SCMP report highlights the resulting chaos and the judge's professional history with the current president, it does not detail the specific legal justification provided by the court for the extension, nor does it provide a response from the electoral commission regarding the implementation of the order.