Bolsonaro Calls for Annulment of Election After Brazilian Court Orders Precincts To Stay Open, Lula Pulls Upset Victory

Challenger Flávio Bolsonaro is demanding Brazil’s presidential election be declared invalid after irregularities handed President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a late reelection victory Sunday in the country’s runoff vote. The unexpected turnaround in the vote count came after a highly unusual decision by the Supreme Federal Court to order polling stations to remain open two hours later than their scheduled closing time. The decision by the court, whose membership includes Mr. Lula’s 2022 election attorney, Cristiano Zanin Martins, was ordered on the grounds that transportation delays and poor weather had made it impossible for some voters to get to polling stations before the deadline. Brazil offers free transport to ensure voters can access precincts on Election Day.The Supreme Federal Court’s decision, however, was applied unevenly with some precincts getting word to stay open and others shutting down at the scheduled time. In addition, the court’s move violates the country’s electoral law. Brazil has a separate court, the Superior Electoral Court, which is in charge of elections per the country’s constitution. The president of the electoral court, Kassio Nunes Marques, said late Sunday that his court had taken specific measures and consulted with jurisdictions prior to the start of round one voting earlier this month to ensure free transportation and monitor access to the polls. He said that any insufficiency would be investigated by the court, but it would not have made a decision to order precincts open at the end of the day. “The preliminary injunction was issued after the closing time of the voting,” Mr. Marques said. “Although there was no regulation authorizing any extension — as has never happened in the history of the [Superior Electoral Court] — it would not be possible, in a few hours, to form a certainty that no collateral effects, especially in the technological aspect, arising from a judicial decision would significantly impact the vote count,” he said.The socialist Mr. Lula won an unprecedented fourth term in the second round of voting on Sunday. The victory defied all pre-election polling that predicted Mr. Bolsonaro, the senator from Rio de Janeiro and son of the now-incarcerated former president and Lula nemesis, Jair Bolsonaro, winning even if Mr. Lula received every vote from supporters of the candidates who had been eliminated in the first round of voting on October 4.Mr. Bolsonaro ended up 4.4 million votes behind Mr. Lula despite receiving 2.3 million more votes than Mr. Lula in the first round. While the first round of voting put Mr. Bolsonaro three percentage points shy of the 50-plus-one margin needed for victory, two eliminated candidates from the first round, Ronaldo Caiado, and Escritor Augusto Cury, endorsed Mr. Bolsonaro. A third, Renan Santos, stayed neutral. In the end, Mr. Lula picked up 10 million more votes than he received in the first round — more than the other eliminated candidates combined — leading to a 52-48 victory. Mr. Bolsonaro said he would seek an annulment of the results because “it is impossible to recognize” them “in the context of how these things happened.” “I will not accept that the rules changed mid-game,” he said. “Equal treatment went completely out the window.”A Florida-based attorney at the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, Martin De Luca, who specializes in fraud, corruption, and international investigations, said the decision to extend voting not only impacted turnout, but also how ballots are collected and counted, leading to a potentially unreliable count. “Each electronic voting machine operates offline. When its polling station closes, it produces a printed local tally — the Boletim de Urna. Results are then transmitted, verified and added to the national total,” he wrote, adding that after the judiciary ordered extended voting, tally reports were paused, slowing aggregation and the publication of results. “Closed machines remained closed. Polling stations still operating could accept additional voters. That is the critical 2 hour window that demands a precise accounting,” he said.As Mr. Bolsonaro sought a do-over, one socialist member of Congress, Duda Salabert, called for the seizure of Mr. Bolsonaro’s passport, saying she did not want him to “flee Brazil to avoid facing the numerous inquiries against him.”“He needs to be arrested soon. We cannot allow him to join his brother in the US to plot against national sovereignty!” the congressional member said.Despite questions about the tally, a sometimes emotional Mr. Lula celebrated his victory, thanking supporters for pulling off an upset. “We made history in the streets and at the ballot boxes, with the people as the protagonists of a journey that still has a long way to go. Democracy prevailed, hope grew stronger, and Brazil moves forward,” he said.Congratulations also poured in from allies as far afield as Chile, the European Commission, and India. “I congratulate President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva @lulaoficial on his re-election and salute the Brazilian people for this democratic day,” Peru’s president, Keiko Fujimori, wrote on X.

Bolsonaro Calls for Annulment of Election After Brazilian Court Orders Precincts To Stay Open, Lula Pulls Upset Victory

Bolsonaro Calls for Annulment of Election After Brazilian Court Orders Precincts To Stay Open, Lula Pulls Upset Victory

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