Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is challenging his election loss last month to leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, arguing in a complaint that votes from most electronic voting machines should be “invalidated” due to a software bug.
Bolsonaro’s right-wing electoral coalition filed the complaint in Brazil’s federal electoral court (TSE) after its audit of the vote count found “irreparable non-compliance due to malfunction” in older voting machines.
“There were signs of serious failures that generate uncertainties and make it impossible to validate the results generated” in several older models of the voting machines, Bolsonaro’s allies said in their complaint. As a result, they urged that the votes from those models should be “invalidated.”
Valdemar Costa Neto, President of Bolsonaro’s PL party, and an auditor hired by the party told reporters in Brasilia that their audit found all machines dating from 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2015—about 59 percent of the total used in the Oct. 30 runoff— lacked individual identification numbers in internal logs, and should be voided.
#URGENTE : O Presidente Jair Bolsonaro e o presidente do PL, Valdemar Costa Neto, informam que entraram com uma representação no Tribunal TSE para pedir a anulação de votos feitos em modelos de urnas de 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013 e 2015 nas eleições de 2022 após auditoria do partido. pic.twitter.com/ujrVGyAAs5
— Rádio RCN 🇧🇷 (@RCNradiochatnet) November 22, 2022
Da Silva appeared to win the second round of voting on October 30, 2022, spurring massive protests throughout the country.
Brazil 🇧🇷 Stunning Scenes 🔥 Day 16, Outside The Military Barracks in protest of the Election Results…It would seem the Brazilians have finally had 𝙀𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝….💣🔥👊 pic.twitter.com/FQIaEKoO0P
— 𝙍𝙄𝙎𝙀𝙈𝙀𝙇𝘽𝙊𝙐𝙍𝙉𝙀 (@riseupandresist) November 16, 2022
BRAZIL: A revolution is currently underway as citizens rise up in protest over what they say is a “stolen” election. pic.twitter.com/54sBascO3X
— Katie Daviscourt🇺🇸 (@KatieDaviscourt) November 14, 2022
A message to whom it may concern.
Huge protests in Brazil against the alleged rigging, fraud and manipulation in Brazil's presidential election.pic.twitter.com/uS9wyVmNWY— Maheen Faisal (@MaheenFaisal20) November 17, 2022
Protests against the election continue in #Brazil pic.twitter.com/3V6N1d8hMo
— @Sh..ab (@ShehabBawazeer2) November 20, 2022
The US Media continues to ignore the ongoing protests in Brazil over the stolen election there https://t.co/IwT65oPb88
— Deep State Trades (@CapCube) November 22, 2022
On the 21st day, under heavy rain, the Brazilian people continued their protests throughout Brazil, against the fraudulent election of the corrupt criminal Lula da Silva.@elonmusk @foxnewspolitics @FoxNews @TuckerCarlson pic.twitter.com/yXWXscjEXw
— GuerreiroFox🇧🇷2️⃣2️⃣ (@Cap3olsonaro) November 23, 2022
According to Reuters, the above represents “a small but committed protest movement” that is refusing to accept the result of the election.