The far-right president, candidate for re-election, has raised several times and without proof the possibility of “fraud” in the context of electronic voting for the presidential election in Brazil.
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He changes his tone as the second round approaches. Far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a candidate for re-election, said on Friday October 21 that he would recognize a possible defeat in the second round of the presidential election on October 30, provided that “nothing unusual” does not occur during the vote.
“Today everyone says that my acceptance (among the people) is much larger than my opponent’s (former left-wing president Lula). But let’s leave the ballot boxes… let’s leave this question to the electoral transparency commission”said Jair Bolsonaro, during a live interview on the SBT channel. “If the transparency commission, in which the armed forces also participate, shows nothing abnormal, there is no reason to doubt the outcome of the elections,” added the leader, a former army captain. On several occasions and without proof, he had raised the possibility of “fraud” through the electronic ballot boxes used to vote in Brazil.
Jair Bolsonaro went so far as to threaten not to recognize the results if he lost against Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The left-wing candidate, who counted 21 points ahead of Jair Bolsonaro in May according to the Datafolha institute, remains in the lead as the second round approaches: according to a latest Datafolha poll, he collects 49% of voting intentions, against 45% for Jair Bolsonaro, with 1% undecided and 4% blank or invalid votes. The outgoing president had however created a surprise in the first round, obtaining 43% of the vote against 48% for Lula, a much smaller gap than what the opinion polls predicted.