US President Donald Trump has questioned the result of Brazil’s presidential runoff, saying the vote won by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva “looked like another rigged election” — even as the defeated candidate’s own party said it accepts the outcome.
Trump spoke to reporters on 26 October before flying to the US state of Mississippi for a campaign rally. “I didn’t take sides, but it looked like another rigged election,” he said, offering no evidence for the claim. He criticised the way votes were tabulated and called a two-hour extension of voting “very strange”.
What the result showed
Lula won the 25 October runoff with 51.79 per cent of valid votes against 48.21 per cent for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, a margin of more than four million votes, according to Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court. It was a historic fourth term for the 80-year-old leader, who had trailed Bolsonaro after the first round earlier in October.
Bolsonaro refuses to concede
Bolsonaro has refused to concede defeat. He initially said he would seek to annul the result, citing the last-minute extension of voting hours. In a video posted on Monday, he shifted approach, saying he would seek Lula’s disqualification over alleged abuses of political and economic power, again without providing evidence.
Both campaigns had asked for voting hours to be extended: Lula’s campaign cited disruption to public transport, while Bolsonaro’s campaign cited heavy rain in southern Brazil. The Supreme Court ordered polling stations to stay open for two extra hours, until 7 p.m.
Fewer than 35,000 votes, about 0.03 per cent of the total, were cast in the extra two hours, according to an analysis of electoral records by Insper professor Pedro Burgos cited by Reuters.
His party accepts the result
On Monday, Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party said it acknowledged the result. Party president Valdemar Costa Neto said: “We recognise the presidential election results. But we believe the issues raised need to be properly clarified.”
Brazilian Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin rejected Trump’s intervention as wrong and unfounded, saying Brazil’s electronic voting was a model for other countries. Trump did not formally endorse a candidate before the vote, and said his criticism was not a personal slight against Lula.
Bolsonaro also said federal police ordered him to surrender his passports after he visited his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest after being sentenced to 27 years in prison over the 2022 coup attempt.
FAKTA
- Lula won the runoff with 51.79 per cent of valid votes; Flávio Bolsonaro took 48.21 per cent.
- The margin of victory was more than four million votes.
- Voting was extended by two hours by the Supreme Court; under 35,000 votes were cast in that window.
- Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party says it recognises the result; Bolsonaro himself has not conceded.
- Trump offered no evidence for his claim that the election looked “rigged”.
Conclusion
The coming days will show whether Bolsonaro’s legal challenge gains traction, but with his own party recognising the result and the extra-hours votes amounting to a fraction of the margin, Lula’s fourth term looks secure. The episode has nevertheless opened a new point of friction between Brasília and Washington.
