Flávio Bolsonaro's Liberal Party has recognised the outcome of Brazil's presidential runoff, despite the candidate's earlier objections to the poll won by leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Lula, who turns 81 on Tuesday, pulled off a dramatic comeback after trailing Bolsonaro in a first-round vote, a defeat which fired up the left on the streets and social media to secure him a fourth term in office.
In the end, Lula pulled around 4.4 million more votes than his rival on Sunday.
Bolsonaro, a right-wing senator and 45-year-old son of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, cried foul after polling was extended nationwide for two hours, at Lula's request, due to transport problems in some cities.
Though Bolsonaro maintained that he would seek annulment of the presidential election, his party later distanced itself from that position and opted to accept the official vote.
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"We recognise the presidential election results, as proclaimed by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), but we believe that the concerns raised need to be sufficiently addressed within a balanced and democratic political debate," the party said in a statement late Monday.
Flávio Bolsonaro had also requested polling stations stay open in some regions due to heavy rains, but he described the vote extension as "unacceptable" and a "dirty trick".
Electoral court chief Kassio Nunes Marques, a Jair Bolsonaro appointee to the Supreme Court, hailed the "successful polls" and said there "were no changes" resulting from the decision to extend voting, even if it did create difficulties.
Flávio Bolsonaro's prior rejection of the results echoed his father's refusal to acknowledge losing to Lula in the October 2022 elections.
Jair Bolsonaro left Brazil for the United States in late December 2022, flying to Florida shortly before Lula was inaugurated on 1 January 2023.
A week later, hundreds of the former president's supporters stormed government buildings to demand military intervention.
He returned to Brazil on 30 March 2023 and is now serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for an attempted coup to stop Lula from taking office.
In a video posted to social media on Monday afternoon, Flávio Bolsonaro said police had ordered him to surrender his passports, adding: "I am now prohibited from leaving the country."
He said the decision came from a Supreme Court justice and was based on a comment by his US-based brother Eduardo Bolsonaro, who told a US podcast two days before the election that "if my brother does not win, I am in favour that he would leave the country".
Eduardo cited investigations against his brother.
Brazilian police are probing Flávio Bolsonaro for corruption over the financing of the biopic Dark Horse about his father.
"I never had any intention of leaving the country. I will surrender my passports and defend myself against this travesty," Flávio Bolsonaro said.
The right-wing candidate also took up the mantle of "leadership of the opposition" in a separate statement.
Brazil's markets tumbled nearly 17 per cent, and the dollar surged against the real in response to leftist Lula's re-election, as investors worried about fiscal discipline.
Flávio slammed Lula for "an unprecedented abuse of both political and economic power," over a flurry of social spending announcements during the campaign.
The left was triumphant after securing a historic turnaround in the vote, with thousands pouring into the streets to celebrate Lula on Sunday night.
Lawyer Julio Canelo, 42, hailed a victory for "the entire democratic spectrum".
"It was the result of the people mobilising, in the streets and online," he told the Agence France-Presse news agency.
Lula's re-energised campaign to the cry of "Never Again Bolsonaro," urging people to go out and vote, saw the abstention rate fall from 21 per cent to 19 per cent in the runoff.
The proportion of spoiled and blank votes also decreased.
"I owe this victory to the rebellious youth who rose up to defend democracy," Lula told jubilant supporters Sunday night.
While congratulations rolled in for Lula from world leaders on both sides of the political divide, US President Donald Trump, an ally of the Bolsonaro family, said the election "looked terrible to me".
"I didn't take sides, but it looked like another rigged election, frankly," he told reporters in Washington. "It looked so corrupt."
European nations, Russia, China, India, South Africa and others congratulated Lula.
Several right-wing governments in Latin America — who are close with Trump — accepted the victory, with Colombia's President Abelardo de la Espriella saying even though he had backed Bolsonaro: "When the people speak at the ballot box, their will must be respected."
