Bolsonaro’s party accepts Brazil election after Trump calls vote ‘rigged’

Trump pushes unsubstantiated claims about Brazil’s presidential vote but says he ‘didn’t take sides’ in the race.

Brazil's right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro speaks after his election loss on October 25 [Pablo Porciuncula/AFP]

The political party of Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has acknowledged the result of Brazil’s presidential run-off, despite the right-wing candidate pledging to annul the outcome.

On Monday, Valdemar Costa Neto, the leader of the right-wing Liberal Party, issued a statement saying his political group had accepted the outcome of the vote.

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Still, he echoed Bolsonaro’s concerns about the circumstances surrounding the election.

“We recognise the presidential election results,” Costa Neto said. “But we believe the issues raised need to be properly clarified.”

On Sunday, Bolsonaro was defeated by left-wing incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva by a margin of more than 4.4 million votes.

Bolsonaro has yet to formally concede. In a post-election speech, he called the election results “unacceptable”, citing a last-minute extension to voting hours.

“We will take legal action,” he told supporters. “I will request that these elections be annulled.”

An extension to Sunday’s vote had been sought by the campaigns of both candidates — but for different reasons.

Bolsonaro’s camp had pointed to inclement weather that impeded some voters from reaching polling stations. Parts of southern Brazil, considered a right-wing stronghold, had experienced heavy rains on Sunday.

Lula’s campaign, meanwhile, pushed for longer voting hours after it accused some cities of limiting public transportation on election day.

The left-wing leader’s allies framed those reductions in service as an attempt at election interference, aimed at preventing Lula’s working-class base from voting.

Media reports indicated that Pablo Souza, a transportation official in the city of Salvador, was arrested on Sunday over the matter.

In response to the petitions, Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin agreed to extend voting by two hours.

Whereas polls across the country had been slated to close at 5pm Brasilia time (20:00 GMT), Zanin’s order allowed those that had not already closed to remain open until 7pm (22:00 GMT).

Following his loss, Bolsonaro cried foul, saying that the justice’s decision had disadvantaged his voters.

He pointed to Zanin’s relationship with Lula as support: Lula had appointed Zanin to the high court in 2023, and Zanin had formerly served as the left-wing politician’s personal lawyer.

“With a simple stroke of a pen, at the request of a former partner, [Zanin] changed the rules of the game mid-match,” Bolsonaro said in his address on Sunday night.

But experts signalled they were sceptical of Bolsonaro’s claims of malfeasance.

An analysis by Pedro Burgos, a professor at the Brazilian educational institute Insper, found that the extension resulted in 35,000 additional votes across the country, less than 0.03 percent of the total.

That amount was far short of Lula’s 4.4 million vote advantage. The incumbent won more than 64.25 million votes, compared with Bolsonaro’s 59.83 million.

Still, some right-wing allies rallied to Bolsonaro’s support. US President Donald Trump, who has clashed with Lula in the past, told reporters that the vote seemed “rigged”.

“Elections have to be indisputable and it looked very bad to me,” Trump said on Monday. “It looked like another rigged election, frankly.”

Still, Trump stopped short of suggesting that he would get involved on behalf of Bolsonaro, saying instead he “did not take sides” in the election.

Bolsonaro’s refusal to accept his loss has raised concerns about whether he will abide by the democratic process or follow in the footsteps of his father, Jair Bolsonaro, who served as Brazil’s president from 2019 to 2023.

After his defeat to Lula in the 2022 election, the ex-president refused to acknowledge the outcome.

Instead, he and his allies sought to overturn the results, including through a legal challenge , and prosecutors accused him of plotting a coup to prevent the legal transfer of power.

Jair Bolsonaro is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence on coup-related charges.

Separately, he was also barred from serving in public office for eight years, after a court found he had misused his public office to spread misinformation about the election.

Flavio Bolsonaro, along with his siblings, has sought to have his father released. The family has denounced the elder Bolsonaro’s trial as a case of political persecution.

Still, it is unclear whether Flavio Bolsonaro will continue with his legal challenge over Sunday’s election.

The Brazilian news outlet Folha de S Paulo reported on Monday that legal advisers and political allies have convinced Bolsonaro to abandon his quest to have his loss annulled, citing the large margin of Lula’s victory and its validation by the Supreme Court and election authorities.

Bolsonaro also announced on Monday that federal police asked him to hand over his passports amid speculation that he could leave the country following his loss.

He said that he would comply with the order and had no plans to leave.

“To withstand the chaos, I’m going to organise the opposition,” the right-wing politician said.

特朗普对巴西总统选举发表了未经证实的言论，但他表示自己在选举中“没有选边站队”。

巴西右翼参议员弗拉维奥·博尔索纳罗在10月25日选举失败后发表讲话 [Pablo Porciuncula/AFP]

尽管右翼候选人弗拉维奥·博尔索纳罗誓言要宣布选举结果无效，但他的政党还是承认了巴西总统第二轮投票的结果。

周一，右翼自由党领导人瓦尔德马尔·科斯塔·内托发表声明称，他的政治团体接受了投票结果。

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不过，他也表达了与博索纳罗相同的担忧，即对选举相关情况的担忧。

科斯塔·内托表示：“我们承认总统选举结果，但我们认为所提出的问题需要得到妥善澄清。”

周日，博索纳罗以超过 440 万张选票的差距败给了左翼现任总统路易斯·伊纳西奥·卢拉·达席尔瓦。

博索纳罗尚未正式承认败选。他在选后讲话中称选举结果“令人无法接受”，并指出投票时间在最后一刻被延长。

“我们将采取法律行动，”他告诉支持者。“我将要求宣布这些选举无效。”

两位候选人的竞选团队都曾要求将投票日期延长至周日，但原因各不相同。

博索纳罗阵营指出，恶劣天气阻碍了一些选民前往投票站。被认为是右翼势力大本营的巴西南部部分地区周日遭遇暴雨。

与此同时，卢拉的竞选团队指责一些城市在选举日限制公共交通，并推动延长投票时间。

左翼领导人的盟友将这些服务削减描述为干预选举的企图，目的是阻止卢拉的工人阶级支持者投票。

媒体报道显示，萨尔瓦多市交通官员巴勃罗·索萨因这起事件于周日被捕。

针对这些请愿，最高法院大法官克里斯蒂亚诺·扎宁同意将投票时间延长两个小时。

虽然全国各地的投票站原定于巴西利亚时间下午 5 点（格林尼治标准时间 20:00）关闭，但扎宁的命令允许尚未关闭的投票站继续开放至晚上 7 点（格林尼治标准时间 22:00）。

败选后，博索纳罗大喊冤枉，称法官的判决损害了他的选民的利益。

他指出扎宁与卢拉的关系可以作为支持：卢拉在 2023 年任命扎宁为最高法院法官，而扎宁此前曾担任这位左翼政治家的私人律师。

博索纳罗在周日晚间的讲话中说：“扎宁应前合作伙伴的要求，仅凭一笔之力就改变了比赛规则。”

但专家们表示，他们对博索纳罗关于渎职的说法持怀疑态度。

巴西教育机构 Insper 的教授 Pedro Burgos 分析发现，延期投票导致全国增加了 35,000 张选票，不到总票数的 0.03%。

这个数字远低于卢拉440万张选票的领先优势。现任总统卢拉赢得了超过6425万张选票，而博索纳罗获得了5983万张选票。

尽管如此，一些右翼盟友还是团结起来支持博索纳罗。美国总统唐纳德·特朗普过去曾与卢拉发生冲突，他告诉记者，这次选举似乎“被操纵了”。

“选举必须毫无争议，而这次选举在我看来非常糟糕，”特朗普周一表示。“坦白说，这看起来像是又一次被操纵的选举。”

不过，特朗普并没有暗示他会代表博索纳罗出面，而是说他在选举中“没有选边站队”。

博索纳罗拒绝接受败选结果，引发了人们对他是否会遵守民主程序，还是会步其父雅伊尔·博索纳罗的后尘的担忧。雅伊尔·博索纳罗曾于 2019 年至 2023 年担任巴西总统。

在2022年大选中败给卢拉后，这位前总统拒绝承认选举结果。

相反，他和他的盟友试图推翻选举结果，包括通过法律挑战，检察官指控他密谋政变以阻止权力的合法移交。

雅伊尔·博尔索纳罗目前因与政变相关的罪名正在服刑27年。

此外，他还被法院认定滥用公职散布有关选举的虚假信息，并被禁止在八年内担任公职。

弗拉维奥·博尔索纳罗和他的兄弟姐妹一直致力于争取父亲获释。博尔索纳罗家族谴责对老博尔索纳罗的审判是一起政治迫害案件。

不过，目前还不清楚弗拉维奥·博尔索纳罗是否会继续就周日的选举结果提起法律诉讼。

巴西新闻媒体《圣保罗页报》周一报道称，法律顾问和政治盟友已说服博索纳罗放弃推翻败选结果的努力，理由是卢拉的胜选优势巨大，且最高法院和选举当局已确认其胜利。

博索纳罗周一还宣布，联邦警察要求他交出护照，此前有猜测称，他败选后可能会离开该国。

他说他会遵守命令，没有离开的打算。

“为了抵御混乱，我将组织反对派，”这位右翼政治家说道。