Flavio Bolsonaro said he would seek to annul Brazil’s presidential election after refusing to accept his defeat to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Sunday’s runoff.
The conservative candidate for the Liberal Party (PL) challenged the legality of the Supreme Court’s decision to extend voting by two hours. Speaking in Brasilia after Lula was declared re-elected, he said the result could not be accepted because, in his view, the rules had been changed during the election process.
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Bolsonaro questioned how voting day had been conducted and said there were still many issues that needed clarification. In particular, he criticized the decision allowing voting to continue for two hours at some polling stations.
He described the Federal Supreme Court’s decision as unprecedented and unacceptable, accusing Justice Cristiano Zanin of intervening in the process shortly before polling stations were due to close. According to him, the rules of the race had been changed midway through.
The politician also noted that Zanin had been Lula’s personal lawyer before being appointed to the Supreme Court. The justice received the case through the usual random allocation process.
Bolsonaro described the case as a serious violation of the electoral process and autonomy, claiming that nothing of the kind had ever happened before in Brazil’s history.
The decision to extend voting hours was made on Sunday, shortly before voting was scheduled to end, following complaints about difficulties getting voters around in various cities.
Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT) had raised concerns about public transport, saying that problems on the roads were making it harder for citizens to reach polling stations.
Flávio Bolsonaro’s side had also called for voting to be extended, but only in certain areas where heavy rain had disrupted voters’ movement.
Cristiano Zanin ruled that voting would continue for two hours, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time. The announcement caused confusion because some polling stations had already closed their doors.
It later became clear that the extension applied only to polling stations where voting had not been completed; those that had closed would not reopen.
Despite Bolsonaro’s objections, Brazil’s electoral authority declared Lula the winner, securing him his fourth presidential term.
The defeated candidate’s announcement that he would seek to annul the election opens another political and legal confrontation in Brazil.
