As we’ve covered, the Brazilian election was a bit of a stunner: leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva mounted a comeback win, beating conservative Flávio Bolsonaro 51-48. Yet, The New York Times live blog even noted that the results were iffy:

Several electoral lawyers say today’s vote could be annulled due to confusion over the late decision to extend voting hours. All four lawyers interviewed call the situation unprecedented. “This is an extremely serious, critical situation,” said Priscilla Sodré Pereira, an electoral lawyer. Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin decided, minutes before polls closed, to extend all polling stations by two additional hours. By the time of the announcement, some polling centers had already closed, their voting machines had shut down, and they could not reopen. Fernnado Neisser, an electoral law professor at Fundação Getulio Vargas, a Brazilian research institute, said the election could be annulled if the margin is very narrow and it is shown that polling stations stayed open longer in areas that strongly favor one candidate.

There was also miscommunication and confusing instructions on poll closures:

Numerous poll workers nationwide said they received confusing and sometimes contradictory orders from electoral authorities. At a polling site in central São Paulo, one election worker said that by 5 p.m. local time, she and her colleagues heard that the Supreme Court had ordered polling sites to remain open two more hours. However, local authorities ordered them to shut down. The worker, who gave her name only as Bárbara because she feared repercussions, said they eventually got orders to reopen by 6 p.m., but it was too late for many voters.

Bolsonaro initially didn’t concede, but quickly changed his tune on Monday after President Trump said he wouldn’t intervene (via WaPo) [emphasis mine]:

Brazil’s leading right-wing politician, Flávio Bolsonaro, effectively conceded defeat to the incumbent left-wing president Monday, minutes after President Donald Trump indicated he would not intervene on his behalf despite saying that Sunday’s vote “looked like another rigged election.”

Bolsonaro had initially declared he would challenge the outcome of the election, which he had been widely expected to win. He said that an extension of voting hours on Sunday, driven by poor weather, transportation problems and requests from both campaigns, was a “dirty trick” used to rig the election. The decision to extend polling hours was made by a Supreme Court justice, Cristiano Zanin, who was once Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s personal lawyer.

As Dmitri wrote earlier today, Bolsonaro has now fled the country, as he’s being investigated for corruption, money laundering, and other crimes that might be fugazi. We’re not the only country where the left-wing goes after its enemies via lawfare. His brother urged him to flee Brazil if he’d lost the election. The Brazilian Supreme Court ordered that he turn over his passports and instructed him not to leave the country. Bolsonaro defied the court and is currently on his way to the United States. 

Safe travels, sir.

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