Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is challenging his election loss to leftist challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Reuters reports.
Bolsonaro is challenging his loss, arguing that votes from some electronic voting machines should be “invalidated.”
Bolsonaro’s allies said their audit of the October 30 second-round runoff found “signs of irreparable… malfunction” in some machines.
"There were signs of serious failures that generate uncertainties and make it impossible to validate the results generated" in older models, the complaint claims, urging that the results from those machines be “invalidated.”
Unlikely to get far:
Bolsonaro’s claims are “unlikely to get far,” Reuters reported.
Lula’s victory has already been certified by the Superior Electoral Court and has been acknowledged by Brazilian lawmakers and international allies.
Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court justice who heads the electoral court, said that the Bolsonaro allies who filed the complaint must provide their full audit of both rounds of last month’s elections within 24 hours or he would reject it.
Reactions:
Gleisi Hoffmann, the president of Lula's Workers Party, described the 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, a rival to Lula’s party, also called the complaint “senseless” and vowed it would be resisted "by institutions, the international community and Brazilian society."
