PanamaTimes

Sunday, Jul 06, 2025

Bolsonaro challenge to Brazil election result seen stoking protests

Bolsonaro challenge to Brazil election result seen stoking protests

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's attempt to challenge the election he lost last month appears weak on the merits, according to electoral experts and political analysts, but could still fire up his supporters who have been protesting his loss.
In a complaint filed with the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) on Tuesday, Bolsonaro's allies argued that votes from some machines should be "invalidated," citing signs of "malfunction" and calling into question the win by his leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Giuseppe Janino, one of the creators of Brazil's electronic voting system, said the complaint appeared focused on machine logs that have no bearing on the voting results.

"This is no more than another attempt to discredit the electronic voting system that has worked well, electing governments for 26 years in our country, and contributed to our democracy," Janino told Reuters.

The complaint was met with skepticism by election authorities and other political figures who have recognized Lula's victory.

The head of Brazil's Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, said the election result was "unquestionable," while the center-right Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB) called Bolsonaro's challenge "senseless." When the PSDB challenged the result of the 2014 presidential election, the investigation took one year and no irregularities were found.

Vice President Hamilton Mourao, on a trip to Portugal, acknowledged on Wednesday that Bolsonaro's challenge was unlikely to succeed but said Brazil's electoral process needed more "transparency."

In a news conference on Wednesday, Bolsonaro's Liberal Party leader, Valdemar Costa Neto, repeated claims of alleged flaws in the voting machine logs in the second round of the election, but affirmed that such flaws were not found in the first round. The machines used were the same in both rounds.

As Costa Neto spoke, the party's website was flooded with messages from people seeking military intervention against Lula returning to office. "SOS Armed Forces," many of them said.

"Bolsonaro's style is to always go for confrontation, and this challenge is evidently a way to keep his hard-right supporters mobilized," said political strategist Luiz Flavio Guimaraes.

He said the right-wing Liberal Party provided no evidence of fraud when it presented the complaint, adding that the president's allies appeared disappointed with the weakness of the case made to election authorities.

Analyst Andre Cesar at Hold Legislativa consultancy said, however, that the challenge would provide ammunition for an ongoing protest movement of Bolsonaro's hardcore supporters.

"His arguments are flimsy, but this will serve him to keep the most radical of his supporters mobilized, guaranteeing that they will continue to make noise outside army barracks," he said.

Die-hard Bolsonaro supporters have been camped out in front of army bases protesting against Lula's victory that they say was "stolen" by electoral fraud and calling on the military to intervene.

Their numbers have dwindled in recent weeks and there was no immediate sign of an uptick on Wednesday. But the challenge could given them new momentum, some said.

"The people are in the streets, they will not retreat," said one of those supporters - Paulo Carvalho, 54, owner of an IT business. "If everything that was revealed in this complaint is really true, this is tangible evidence that the results were tampered with," he said.
Newsletter

Related Articles

PanamaTimes
0:00
0:00
Close
U.S. Enacts Sweeping Tax and Spending Legislation Amid Trade Policy Shifts
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
OpenAI Secures Multimillion-Dollar AI Contracts with Pentagon, India, and Grab
Brazilian Congress Rejects Lula's Proposed Tax Increase on Financial Transactions
Landslide in Bello, Colombia, Results in Multiple Casualties
Papa Johns pizza surge near the Pentagon tipped off social media before Trump's decisive Iran strike
Juncker Criticizes EU Inaction on Trump Tariffs
Minnesota Lawmaker Melissa Hortman and Husband Killed in Targeted Attack; Senator John Hoffman and Wife Injured
Wreck of $17 Billion San José Galleon Identified Off Colombia After 300 Years
Sole Survivor of Air India Crash Recounts Escape
Coinbase CEO Warns Bitcoin Could Supplant US Dollar Amid Mounting National Debt
UK and EU Reach Agreement on Gibraltar's Schengen Integration
Israeli Finance Minister Imposes Banking Penalties on Palestinians
U.S. Inflation Rises to 2.4% in May Amid Trade Tensions
Trump's Policies Prompt Decline in Chinese Student Enrollment in U.S.
Global Oceans Near Record Temperatures as CO₂ Levels Climb
Trump Announces U.S.-China Trade Deal Covering Rare Earths
Smuggled U.S. Fuel Funds Mexican Cartels Amid Crackdown
Protests Erupt in Los Angeles with Symbolic Flag Burning
Trump Administration Issues New Travel Ban Targeting 12 Countries
Man Group Mandates Full-Time Office Return for Quantitative Analysts
JPMorgan Warns Analysts Against Accepting Future-Dated Job Offers
Builder.ai Faces Legal Scrutiny Amid Financial Misreporting Allegations
Japan Grapples with Rice Shortage Amid Soaring Prices
Goldman Sachs Reduces Risk Exposure Amid Market Volatility
HSBC Chairman Mark Tucker to Return to AIA as Non-Executive Chair
Israel Confirms Arming Gaza Clan to Counter Hamas Influence
Judge Blocks Trump's Ban on International Students at Harvard
Trump Proposes Travel Ban on 'Uncontrolled' Countries
Panama Port Owner Balances US-China Pressures
Trump Administration Accused of Obstructing Deportation Cases
Trump’s China Strategy Remains a Geopolitical Puzzle
Eurozone Inflation Falls Below ECB Target to 1.9%
Call for a New Chapter in Globalisation Emerges
Blackstone and Rivals Diverge on Private Equity Strategy
Mayor’s Security Officer Implicated | Shocking New Details Emerge in NYC Kidnapping Case
Bangkok Ranked World's Top City for Remote Work in 2025
Denmark Increases Retirement Age to 70, Setting a European Precedent
Netanyahu Accuses Western Leaders of 'Emboldening Hamas'
Escalating Trade Tensions and Market Reactions
OnlyFans Reportedly in Talks for $8 Billion Sale
JBS Gains Shareholder Approval for U.S. Stock Listing
Booz Allen Hamilton to Cut 2,500 Jobs Amid Federal Spending Reductions
Trump Signs Executive Orders to Accelerate Nuclear Energy Development
Harvard Temporarily Blocks Trump Administration's International Student Ban
Nippon Steel Forms Partnership with U.S. Steel, Headquarters to Remain in Pittsburgh
Trump Expands Tariff Threats to Apple and Samsung Devices
Oracle and OpenAI Plan $40 Billion Nvidia Chip Purchase for AI Data Center
Trump Threatens 50% Tariff on EU Goods, Markets React
×