AIN’T OVER YET

Bolsonaro Challenges Brazil Election Loss to Lula, Demands Votes Be Annulled

The far-right president’s party filed a complaint with electoral authorities, casting blame on a software bug.

Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has challenged the outcome of last month’s election, which he narrowly lost to leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro’s allies filed a complaint with electoral authorities over a supposed software bug affecting the country’s voting machines. A 33-page request to invalidate a swath of votes cast on nearly 280,000 machines made before 2020 was filed to Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court on behalf of Bolsonaro and his Liberal Party, according to the Associated Press. Citing the results of its own audit on the Oct. 30 runoff election, the party claimed in its report that, “There were signs of serious failures that generate uncertainties and make it impossible to validate the results generated,” according to Al Jazeera. An annulment of the votes on older machines would leave Bolsonaro with a victory, but his challenge comes well after the ratification of Lula’s victory by the Superior Electoral Court and its international acknowledgement.