Brazil’s Bolsonaro escalates remarks about election fraud Reuters

(Corrections in paragraphs 1 and 7 clarify that Bolsonaro is looking for a hybrid system, not an alternative electronic system)

Brasilia (Reuters)-Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro pleaded for countable printed ballots on Thursday, claiming the need to avoid the country’s electronic voting system in next year’s elections Fraud in.

“I hope to hold elections next year, but there will be clean, democratic and sincere elections,” he told supporters in a weekly social media webcast.

Bolsonaro showed a series of internet video clips as evidence of past fraud, insisting that Brazil’s democracy is in danger.

Critics say Bolsonaro, like former US President Donald Trump, is sowing election doubts, paving the way for him not to accept defeat in 2022.

Due to his decline in popularity after overseeing the world’s second deadly coronavirus outbreak, opinion polls show that he is behind the former left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, even though none of them have officially It was announced that they would stand for election.

For several months, Bolsonaro has insisted that Brazil adopt paper ballots, although the constitutional amendment to change the electoral system has not received much support in Congress.

He advocated a hybrid system in which voters submit their votes in an electronic urn, and if the result is questioned, it can also print out the votes that can be counted.

Brazil’s highest electoral body, TSE, refuted Bolsonaro’s baseless allegations of fraud in the 2014 election, saying that electronic voting can be audited well.​​​ Even the loser in 2014, Aécio Neves, who was defeated by Lula’s candidate Dilma Rousseff in a close election, said it was fair.

The escalation of Bolsonaro’s allegations of election fraud comes at a worrying moment. Just a few days ago, a blockbuster newspaper reported that the Brazilian Defense Minister threatened that unless printed ballots were used, it would not be held. The 2022 elections.

Estado de S. Paulo reported that former Army General Secretary of Defense Walter Braga Neto told the Speaker of the House of Representatives Arthur Rila through an interlocutor. Reuters was unable to independently verify the report, which cited anonymous sources.

Both Lira and Braganetto denied the report.