Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right party has contested certain ballots from the election in October in which he was defeated by leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro is the outgoing president of Brazil.
Voting machines that the Liberal Party believes were tampered with during the second round produced ballots that should be rejected, according to the electoral court’s request.
The party has been given 24 hours by the court to revise their petition to add the results of the first voting round.
Both times, the same same equipment was used.
In the first round, Mr. Bolsonaro’s party did better than anticipated. The party’s claim of mechanical defects is unsupported by any evidence.
The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) has confirmed that Lula won with 50.9% of the vote against Mr. Bolsonaro’s 49.1%, thus the challenge may not go very far.
About 280,000 voting machines from models used before 2020 are involved. In the past, Mr. Bolsonaro has asserted that Brazil’s computerized voting system is not entirely secure against fraud.
While refusing to admit loss, Mr. Bolsonaro has given the go-ahead for a presidential transition. Ever since he was defeated in the election on October 30th, he has withdrawn from public view.
According to his party, he would be reelected “with 51.05% of the valid votes, against 48.95% for Lula” if the votes in issue were disregarded.
