Bolsonaro’s Party Questions Lula’s Victory in Brazil Runoff Election

Daniel Carvalho
·2 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- President Jair Bolsonaro’s party is questioning the result of Brazil’s runoff election, seeking to annul votes that gave leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a tight victory on Oct. 30.

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Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party claimed on Tuesday that older models of Brazil’s electronic ballots had problems that make it impossible to properly identify the machines, and requested that votes cast through them be annulled. If only new models of the machines are deemed reliable, the conservative president would be reelected with 51.05% of the votes, the party said.

Brazilian assets extended losses after the allegations. The real fell as much as 1.7%, while the benchmark Ibovespa stock index closed 0.65% lower as traders worried about the risk of a contested vote.

Yet the electoral court said the same machines were used in both rounds of election. Therefore, the allegations will only be considered if the first round of the vote is also reviewed, the court’s president, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, wrote in a decision published on Tuesday.

Moraes gave 24 hours for Bolsonaro’s party to decide how to proceed. His ruling puts the party in a tough spot because a move to question first-round results would likely affect the election of many of its members in congress.

Read More: Brazil’s Loudest Election Deniers Are Kicked Off Social Media

Bolsonaro has been mostly away from the public eye since losing the election to Lula over three weeks ago. Yet his most loyal supporters have blocked highways across Brazil and continue to stage protests making unproven claims of election fraud and demanding military intervention. While Tuesday’s request by the Liberal Party is unlikely to advance in courts, it adds to a narrative that will keep the president’s base engaged.

What Bloomberg Economics Says

“We think the Liberal Party’s move asking the Electoral Court to annul some votes is more about energizing Bolsonaro’s supporters than anything else. Some of them have protested in the streets since Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was declared the winner on Oct. 30. It’s unlikely this challenge will go far.”

-- Adriana Dupita, Brazil economist

Click here to read the full report.

Speaking before Moraes’s decision, Liberal Party’s head Valdemar da Costa Neto said the report about electronic voting machines doesn’t reflect the party’s opinion, but is the result of studies carried out by specialists.

“I was elected through electronic voting machines, lawmakers from the Liberal Party were elected through electronic voting machines,” he told journalists, describing the report as a specialist work that needs to be addressed by the electoral court to dispel any doubts about the electoral process.

--With assistance from Vinícius Andrade, Barbara Nascimento and Beatriz Reis.

(Updates with Bloomberg Economics analysis, comments from Liberal Party president and context starting in sixth paragraph.)

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