Brazil’s highest electoral college has rejected President Jair Bolsonaro’s complaint about the validity of some of the votes cast in the most recent presidential election. His party PL 24 must also pay a fine of 23 million real (4.1 million euros).
According to Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who presides over the electoral tribunal, the Bolsonaro’s party has tried to undermine the electoral system with the complaint. Moraes also forwarded the case to the Supreme Court.
Bolsonaro’s party filed a complaint with the tribunal (TSE) on Tuesday. The party argued that some older voting machines have flaws that may have “tainted” the results. The votes cast on these machines should therefore be declared invalid. The complaint related only to the second round of the presidential election. According to the electoral law, however, in order to be heard by the tribunal, she should also have dealt with the first round. The electoral court had given Bolsonaro 24 hours to add the first round of elections, in which his party did better, to the indictment. When that did not happen, the complaint was rejected.
The right-wing populist Bolsonaro narrowly lost in October in the second round of the presidential elections to his left-wing opponent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He received 50.9 percent of the vote against 49.1 percent for Bolsonaro. Lula’s victory has been endorsed by TSE and recognized by Brazilian and international politicians.
Lula will come to power on January 1. Bolsonaro supporters, however, are still protesting the loss of their candidate, who had been spreading theories about possible electoral fraud in the months leading up to the election.
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