A rejection and a fine. The Brazilian Superior Electoral Court (TSE) did not respond to the appeal made by the formation of outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro which requested the cancellation of part of the votes obtained by his competitor Lula in the second round of the presidential election won by the latter.
In a text published on the institution’s website, its president Alexandre de Moraes believes that the complaint filed on Tuesday by the Liberal Party (PL) was to “bad faith”. In addition, the TSE imposed a fine of approximately 23 million reales (approximately 4.1 million euros).
The PL had asked on Tuesday “the invalidation of the votes from the electronic ballot boxes for which insurmountable malfunctions have been brought to light, and to draw the legal consequences for the results of the second round”.
The judgment pointed out “the absence of evidence and circumstances justifying the establishment of an extraordinary verification” of some 280,000 electronic ballot boxes used during the presidential election on October 30, which saw the victory of the left-wing candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva with a small majority of 50.9% against 49.1% for the head of state of far right.
His party, which obtained the greatest number of deputies and senators at the end of the legislative elections, believed that the ” malfunctionning “ of five urn models “calls into question the transparency of the electoral process”. These ballot boxes date from before 2020, also supported the PL.
Arguments “absolutely false”
The arguments presented are “absolutely false”estimated Alexandre de Moraes, and the demand “ostensibly offensive to the democratic rule of law and done inconsistently, with the aim of encouraging criminal and anti-democratic movements”. These movements, he adds, manifested themselves in “serious threats and violence” during roadblocks across the country.
After Lula’s victory, supporters of Jair Bolsonaro staged hundreds of blockades that lasted several days and sometimes resulted in clashes with security forces.
Jair Bolsonaro has practically disappeared from public life for more than three weeks, after the announcement of his defeat against ex-president Lula (2003-2010). He 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.