On Sunday, thousands of supporters of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro took to the streets of cities across the country—including Brasilia, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro—to support their leader’s call for a paper ballot in next year’s election. Bolsonaro contends that the electronic system leaves the door open for fraud and has repeatedly warned that he will not accept the results of the 2022 election if he loses unless Congress approves a change to the electronic voting system that has been in place since 1996.
Bolsonaro thanked his supporters for backing his call, saying, “I want to congratulate you for the initiative to go to the streets and fight for freedoms and for clean elections. It is only your right and an obligation of the State to provide for the public counting of votes, which are to be presented as auditable.”
The President’s proposed bill requests that alongside the electronic ballot, voters must be required to fill in a printed copy so that electoral authorities can corroborate the two ballots and count votes both manually and electronically to eliminate fraud.
To this end, Bolsonaro on Sunday declared: “Nobody owns the truth and a clean and democratic election is with the vote printed on paper. It is the continuity of democracy and the will of the people has to prevail. We do not understand why they do not want transparency in the public count of the votes.”
The Superior Electoral Court (TSE), alongside various experts and reports, has repeatedly said that the possibility for fraud is “not feasible.” In fact, on Monday, a group of 18 active and former Supreme Court justices said that Brazil’s electoral system is “free of fraud.”
Bolsonaro, however, has accused the TSE, the press, the left, research institutes, and minorities of lying, declaring, “People who say electronic voting is safe and subject to audits are liars.”
Experts argue that Bolsonaro is setting the stage for his refusal to concede defeat in the election because of his waning popularity. A recent poll shows that a majority of citizens would approve of his impeachment, and his approval rating is reportedly at 24%. This is largely a result of his mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has thus far resulted in close to 20 million cases and over 557,000 deaths in Brazil. In fact, last weekend, thousands of protesters demanded the impeachment of Bolsonaro.
Consequently, the Brazilian leader has warned: “Either there are clean elections or there are no elections.” Against this backdrop, former President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva’s popularity has surged, with polls suggesting that Lula would win the election if it were held today. Lula, who was in office from 2003 to 2011, was recently cleared of all corruption charges, allowing him to run in the October 2022 election.
Bolsonaro’s warnings are somewhat disconcerting, given that he has previously celebrated the military dictatorship that was in place from 1964 to 1985, appointed several former military officers to key positions in his government, and threatened to deploy the army to quell popular dissent. Therefore, his dictatorial tendencies and inclinations have drawn concern about what could transpire in next year’s election.
Thousands of Protesters Back President Bolsonaro’s Calls to Reform Brazil’s Voting System
The President’s proposed bill requests that alongside the electronic ballot, voters must be required to fill in a printed copy so that electoral authorities can corroborate the two ballots.
August 3, 2021
IMAGE SOURCE: DPAA group of 18 active and former Supreme Court justices has refuted Bolsonaro’s claims, saying Brazil’s electoral system is “free of fraud.”