BRAZIL — On October 25, Brazilians voted in a runoff election between left-wing incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro after the first round of Brazil’s general election did not yield any definitive results. Much like the U.S., Brazil holds elections every four years, but in October rather than November. Voting is done electronically and has been since 1996. These machines do not connect to the internet and are equipped with multiple layers of encryption to ensure digital security and signatures to prevent fraud. Elections are held and voted on, with the winner needing just one more vote than 50% to take the win.
While there is no electoral college and candidates only need the popular vote to win, there is an electoral justice system that exists, consisting of a group within Brazil’s judiciary that oversees elections and the voting process.
Each of Brazil’s 27 states has its own regional electoral court. All of these operate under Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court, or TSE. This is similar to, but not to be confused with, Brazil’s Supreme Court.
Early results indicated a win for right-wing challenger Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jaír Bolsonaro. Flávio Bolsonaro is running for president of Brazil after his father narrowly lost to left-wing incumbent Luna in 2022, resulting in widespread upset throughout the country in a January 6-like manner, with riots, civil unrest and lawsuits throughout the country as outrage ensued over the election results.
As if it were déjà vu, the same is happening now, as Lula secures an obscene amount of votes after his own Supreme Court extended the election by two extra hours, raking in a whopping 4 million+ votes for Lula, making him the first-ever president in Brazil to win four terms.
The election is currently under investigation, as Bolsonaro refuses to concede due to unfair and unprecedented practices and a lack of transparency in the electoral process. As such, aspects of the election that to
ok place on October 25 are currently under investigation by Brazilian officials, which could mean that the attempt to prematurely finalize the election results could result in legal challenges.
Current discrepancies throughout the investigation have raised suspicions relating to the disqualification of petitions, candidate corruption, probes, foreign interference and election disputes concerning the extension of election day.
Furthermore, authorities have reported 89 different electoral offenses during this runoff election. The attorney general of Brazil has opened an investigation to rule out U.S. interference after alleged reports that the U.S. State Department was funding outside interest groups to target the Brazilian Supreme Court.
At this time, there is no proof of these claims. This is a developing story.
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