Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, voted out, challenges election results
- The president has filed a complaint alleging that some votes should be ‘invalidated’, in a move that could fuel a small but committed protest movement
- Bolsonaro remained publicly silent for nearly 48 hours after his defeat by rival Lula da Silva, and has still not conceded defeat
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has challenged the election he lost last month to leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, according to a complaint filed with electoral authorities that alleges votes from some voting machines should be “invalidated”.
Bolsonaro’s claim seems unlikely to get far, as Lula’s victory has been ratified by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) and acknowledged by Brazil’s leading politicians and international allies. Still, it could fuel a small but committed protest movement that has so far refused to accept the result.
Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court justice who currently leads the TSE, said in a ruling seen by Reuters 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.
Bolsonaro’s coalition said its audit of the October 30 second-round run-off between Bolsonaro and Lula had found “signs of irreparable … malfunction” in some electronic voting machines.
“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, Bolsonaro allies said in their complaint.