Bolsonaro’s party accepts Brazil election after Trump calls vote ‘rigged’ | Election news

Senator Flavio Bolsonaro’s political party has recognized the result of the second round of Brazil’s presidential election, although the right-wing candidate has vowed to overturn the result.

On Monday, Valdemar Costa Neto, leader of the right-wing Liberal Party, issued a statement saying his political group had accepted the result of the vote.

He nevertheless echoed Bolsonaro’s concerns about the circumstances surrounding the election.

“We recognize the results of the presidential election,” Costa Neto said. “But we believe that the questions raised need to be properly clarified.”

On Sunday, Bolsonaro was defeated by left-wing incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva by a margin of more than 4.4 million votes.

Bolsonaro has yet to officially concede. In a post-election speech, he called the election results “unacceptable,” citing a last-minute extension of voting hours.

“We will take legal action,” he told his supporters. “I will demand that these elections be canceled.”

An extension of Sunday’s vote had been requested by the campaigns of both candidates – but for different reasons.

The Bolsonaro camp had highlighted the bad weather which prevented some voters from going to the polling stations. Parts of southern Brazil, considered a right-wing stronghold, experienced heavy rains on Sunday.

Lula’s campaign, meanwhile, called for longer voting hours after accusing some cities of limiting public transportation on election day.

The left leader’s allies presented the service cuts as an attempt at electoral interference, aimed at preventing Lula’s working-class base from voting.

Media reports said Pablo Souza, a transport official in the city of Salvador, was arrested on Sunday in connection with the case.

In response to the petitions, Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin agreed to extend the vote by two hours.

While polling stations across the country were scheduled to close at 5:00 p.m. Brasilia time (20:00 GMT), Zanin’s order allowed those not yet closed to remain open until 7:00 p.m. (22:00 GMT).

After his defeat, Bolsonaro cried foul, saying the court’s decision had disadvantaged his voters.

He highlighted Zanin’s relationship with Lula as support: Lula had appointed Zanin to the High Court in 2023, and Zanin had previously served as the left-wing politician’s personal lawyer.

“With a simple stroke of the pen, at the request of a former partner, (Zanin) changed the rules of the game during the match,” Bolsonaro said in his speech on Sunday evening.

But experts said they were skeptical of Bolsonaro’s allegations of wrongdoing.

An analysis by Pedro Burgos, a professor at Brazilian educational institute Insper, found that the extension resulted in 35,000 additional votes nationwide, or less than 0.03 percent of the total.

This amount was far less than Lula’s 4.4 million vote advantage. The outgoing president won more than 64.25 million votes, compared to 59.83 million for Bolsonaro.

Some right-wing allies nevertheless rallied to support Bolsonaro. US President Donald Trump, who has clashed with Lula in the past, told reporters the vote appeared “rigged”.

“The election has to be incontestable and that looked very bad to me,” Trump said Monday. “Frankly, it looked like another rigged election. »

Yet Trump stopped short of suggesting he would get involved on Bolsonaro’s behalf, instead saying he “didn’t take sides” in the election.

Bolsonaro’s refusal to accept his loss has raised concerns about whether he will respect the democratic process or follow in the footsteps of his father, Jair Bolsonaro, who served as Brazil’s president from 2019 to 2023.

After his defeat against Lula in the 2022 elections, the ex-president refused to recognize the result.

Instead, he and his allies sought to overturn the results, including filing a lawsuit, and prosecutors accused him of plotting a coup to prevent the legal transfer of power.

Jair Bolsonaro is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence for coup-related charges.

Separately, he was also banned from holding public office for eight years, after a court ruled that he had abused his public office to spread false information about the elections.

Flavio Bolsonaro and his siblings demanded their father’s release. The family denounced the trial of the elder Bolsonaro as a case of political persecution.

It remains to be seen whether Flavio Bolsonaro will continue his legal challenge over Sunday’s elections.

Brazilian newspaper Folha de S Paulo reported Monday that legal advisers and political allies had convinced Bolsonaro to abandon his quest to overturn his defeat, citing Lula’s large margin of victory and its validation by the Supreme Court and electoral authorities.

Bolsonaro also announced Monday that federal police had asked him to hand over his passports amid speculation he might leave the country after losing it.

He said he would comply with the order and had no plans to leave.

“To resist the chaos, I will organize the opposition,” said the right-wing politician.