Lula packed Brazil’s Supreme Court with his own lawyer and justice minister and had them lock his rival up for 27 years. Back in 2023, after taking power, he named Cristiano Zanin and Flávio Dino to the court. In 2025 both voted to convict Jair Bolsonaro of a coup plot and hand him the sentence. That court had previously wiped Lula’s own corruption convictions in 2021 so he could run again. On election day, Zanin ordered the polls kept open another 2 hours, 3 minutes before they were supposed to close. Both sides had asked, but the call came from Lula’s former defense lawyer. Even after Bolsonaro was barred and jailed, Lula still trailed Flávio 45–47 in the first round and only scraped past him by under 4 points in the runoff. Flávio still refuses to concede. Lula called the win a defeat for denialism and lies. Two of the judges who put his rival away were the men he put on the court. Voters barely picked him. The court cleared the path.