Bolsonaro Denies Brazil Election Results on the Basis of a Software ‘Malfunction’

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro—famous mass assassin, in keeping with his personal nation’s Senate—filed a grievance on Tuesday contesting the outcomes of the run-off election he misplaced greater than three weeks in the past. In it, Bolsonaro’s lawyer Marcelo de Bessa claims {that a} “software bug” on 59% of the voting machines used throughout Brazil invalidates many ballots, in keeping with a report from the Associated Press.

The 33-page grievance describes the alleged voting machine difficulty as an “irreparable non-compliance due to malfunction,” affecting all machines greater than two years previous, mentioned the AP. And the submitting calls for that ballots solid on the ~280,000 machines in query be voided. Specifically, an auditor employed by Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party mentioned the voting machines lacked particular person identification numbers, with out explaining how that would’ve presumably impacted election outcomes, in keeping with a report from Politico. 

“It does not undermine the reliability or credibility in any way,” Wilson Ruggiero, a pc engineer on the Polytechnic School of the University of Sao Paulo, instructed the AP.

Another skilled, Diego Aranha, a techniques safety researcher at Aarhus University in Denmark who has beforehand been a part of safety assessments of Brazil’s election system, additionally instructed the AP one thing related. Arhana defined that, although the machine ID numbers didn’t present up in inner digital logs, they did seem on printed receipts tallying the votes solid for every candidate.

Bolsonaro’s loss (and Lula’s victory) has already been declared by Brazil’s electoral authority, and the outcomes have been extensively accepted by politicians throughout the nation—even many of Bolsonaro’s allies.

In response to Bolsonaro’s new claims, the chief of Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court mentioned it will not reassess the election outcomes until the Liberal Party information a brand new grievance inclusive of the congressional elections it gained earlier in October, Politico reported.

The idea of defective and weak voting machines have been a relentless chorus in Bolsnaro’s makes an attempt to undermine Brazil’s democracy for years. However, there has never been any evidence of fraud or ill-doing through the machines which have been used since 1996—regardless of common audits, in keeping with one other AP report.

Though the grievance is unlikely to have a direct influence on authorities actions or sway election officers, in keeping with a number of shops, it’s prone to gasoline ongoing protests by Bolsonaro supporters. Emboldened by Bolsonaro’s earlier refusal to formally concede, tens of hundreds of Brazilians have taken to the streets, refusing to just accept the President’s loss. Sure appears like he’s taking a web page out of former President Donald Trump’s election-denying playbook.