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Bloomberg
President Jair Bolsonaro said, without providing evidence, that Brazil’s highest electoral authorities stole votes in previous elections and will do it again in the 2022 presidential contest unless congress approves his proposal to reintroduce paper ballots.
The allegations are the latest in a series of unsubstantiated vote-fraud claims made by the far-right leader. They come just as opinion polls show his popularity dropping to record lows amid scandals involving the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines.
“The fraud is inside the Superior Electoral Court, there’s no doubt,†Bolsonaro told a group of supporters in front of his official residence. “This happened in 2014,†he said, referring to the re-election of leftist President Dilma Rousseff by 51.6% of the votes in a second-round runoff against center-right candidate Aecio Neves. Congressional and electoral authorities rebuked Bolsonaro’s remarks.
“Anyone who plans for a regression in the democratic rule of law will certainly be pointed to by the Brazilian people and history as an enemy of the nation,†said Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco. A statement published on the electoral court’s website and signed by the head of the court, Supreme Court Justice Luis Roberto Barroso, also repudiated the president’s comments.