Brazilian presidential election candidate Flávio Bolsonaro abandoned plans to challenge the election results, while his Liberal Party formally conceded defeat and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won reelection. According to Sina Finance, party chairman Valdemar Costa Neto signed a statement on Monday acknowledging the result while criticizing increased public spending before the vote and its potential impact on the election.

The statement marked a major retreat from Bolsonaro’s initial response to Sunday’s vote, when he said he would seek to have the election annulled. A member of Bolsonaro’s campaign team initially confirmed his decision to drop the challenge. Another person said the team had long known the challenge was unlikely to succeed but retained the move to mobilize supporters. Both requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Bolsonaro had said he would seek to annul the election because the Supreme Court ordered voting to be extended by two hours. Both his campaign and Lula’s campaign had requested the extension. Election authorities said just over 34,000 ballots were cast after regular voting hours ended, a negligible figure compared with Lula’s lead of about 4.4 million votes.