Bolsonaro challenges Brazil presidential election result
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has called for the invalidation of votes from some machines in last month’s election he lost to leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro’s coalition said its audit of the October 30 second-round runoff between Bolsonaro and Lula had found “signs of irreparable … malfunction” in some electronic voting machines.
Bolsonaro allies said in their complaint that there were signs of serious failures that generate uncertainties and make it impossible to validate the results generated in older models of the voting machines.
As a result, they urged that the votes from those models should be “invalidated.”
Brazil’s Supreme Court justice, Alexandre de Moraes, who currently leads the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), said in a ruling that Bolsonaro’s right-wing electoral coalition, which filed the complaint, must present its full audit for both rounds of last month’s vote within 24 hours, or he would reject it.
Lula’s victory has already been ratified by Brazil’s electoral body, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) and acknowledged by Brazil’s leading politicians and international allies.
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Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain, has for years claimed that the country’s electronic voting system is liable to fraud, without providing substantiating evidence.
Gleisi Hoffmann, the president of Lula’s Workers Party (PT), described Bolsonaro’s election complaint as “chicanery.”
“No more procrastination, irresponsibility, insults to institutions and democracy,” she wrote on Twitter.
“The election was decided in the vote and Brazil needs peace to build a better future.”
The Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), a traditional PT rival, called Bolsonaro’s complaint “senseless,” tweeting that it would be resisted “by institutions, the international community and Brazilian society.”
Bolsonaro remained publicly silent for nearly 48 hours after the election was called on October 30 and has still not conceded defeat, although he authorized his government to begin preparing for a presidential transition.
Zainab Sa’id
