REDRESS The Liberal Party estimates that more than 280,000 electronic ballot boxes are affected by “malfunctions”
Valdemar Costa Neto, president of the Liberal Party, at a conference of press to explain his choice to request the invalidation of part of the presidential votes, in Brasilia on November 22, 2022. — Eraldo Peres/AP/SIPA
Jair Bolsonaro’s party wants to replay the presidential match in Brazil. The Liberal Party (PL) has demanded Tuesday at the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) the cancellation of votes from more than 280,000 electronic ballot boxes, arguing that “malfunctions” would have prevented the re-election of the current president in the face of Lula.
“We call for the invalidation of the votes coming from the electronic ballot boxes for which insurmountable malfunctions have been caused. brought to light, and to draw the legal consequences for the results of the second round,” October 30, can we read in the complaint filed by the PL.
A commissioned audit by the PL
This formation, which obtained the largest number of deputies and senators in the outcome of the legislative elections, believes that the “malfunctioning” of five model ballot boxes “calls into question the transparency of the electoral process” The PL argues that these dysfunctions were demonstrated in a commissioned audit report by the party.
The lawyer of the political movement indicates that more than 280,000 electronic ballot boxes used during the ballot would be of one of these five models in question. According to the count of the PL, the cancellation of the votes coming from these ballot boxes would give the victory to Jair Bolsonaro with 51.05% of the vote, practically the opposite of the official result (50.9% for Lula, 49.1% for the outgoing president).
The President of the TSE, Alexandre de Moraes, responded to a the complaint by explaining that these urn models had been used not only in the second round, but also in the first, on October 2. He therefore asks that the complaint “concerns the two towers”, otherwise it will be dismissed without being analysed. A cancellation of part of the votes obtained on October 2 would also have an impact on the legislative elections, which took place on the same day, on the same ballot boxes. This could jeopardize the election of many PL parliamentarians.
The “feeling of injustice” Bolsonaro supporters
Jair Bolsonaro has virtually disappeared from public life for more than three weeks, after the announcement of his defeat by the opposition. left-wing ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010). He only came out of his silence two days later, without explicitly acknowledging his defeat, and evoking the “sense of injustice” of his supporters who demonstrated in front of barracks to demand military intervention.