BRASILIA, BRAZIL (AP) – More than three weeks after losing a re-election bid, President Jair Bolsonaro yesterday blamed a software bug and demanded the electoral authority annul votes cast on most of Brazil’s nation’s electronic voting machines, though independent experts said the bug doesn’t affect the reliability of results.
Such an action would leave Bolsonaro with 51 per cent of the remaining valid votes – and a reelection victory, Marcelo de Bessa, the lawyer who filed the 33-page request on behalf of the president and his Liberal Party, told reporters.
The electoral authority has already declared victory for Bolsonaro’s nemesis, leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and even many of the president’s allies have accepted the results. Protesters in cities across the country have steadfastly refused to do the same, particularly with Bolsonaro declining to concede.
