Leftists and the Western liberal media rushed to congratulate radical socialist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday over his alleged victory in Brazil in the second round of the presidential election against Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the right-leaning son of a convicted former Brazilian president now under house arrest.
Behind this mad rush to legitimize what could be Lula's fourth nonconsecutive term is not only desperation on the part of liberals to halt a rightward shift in South America but incredible uncertainty over whether the election was itself legitimate.
'What took place is simply inexplicable.'
After all, there was high-level meddling in the final hours of the election — meddling executed at the request of the Lula campaign and that may have had a profound impact on the outcome.
His former boss' bidding
Cristiano Zanin long served as Lula's personal lawyer, defending the socialist against corruption charges and even helping him get out of jail in 2019.
Zanin — whose wife is the daughter of a former Lula lawyer — was rewarded for his efforts. Lula nominated him to the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil, and Zanin was sworn into office in August 2023.
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Lula, a Beijing-friendly leftist, lost to Bolsonaro in the first round on Oct. 4, 47.03% to 45.16%. And though he was apparently in the lead early on Sunday, Bolsonaro managed to overtake him — at least temporarily.
Bolsonaro was, however, kneecapped around the time polling stations around the country were set to close when Zanin ordered the polling stations to remain open for another two hours.
While Bolsonaro had asked the election court for more time in a handful of regions where voters were affected by nasty weather — including the swing state of Minas Gerais — the Lula campaign demanded extended voting times nationwide, including in Bahia, a pro-Lula stronghold, reported Bloomberg.
The Lula campaign suggested that an extension was needed in part because of alleged voter suppression by pro-Bolsonaro mayors.
Zanin obliged his former boss with a universal extension even though: results from 1,225 polling sections had reportedly already been published by the Superior Election Court, some polling stations were reportedly already closed, and some stations' voting machines had been irreversibly shut down.
According to the TSE, the Superior Election Court of Brazil, Lula secured over 4.4 million more votes than Bolsonaro and won the election 51.79%-48.21%.
Illegitimate?
Bolsonaro rejected the outcome of the election and indicated that he will pursue an annulment of it in light of the last-minute rule-change by one of "Lula's friends."
As relayed by state media, Bolsonaro told reporters outside his campaign headquarters, "It is impossible to recognize the election results given the circumstances under which these events unfolded. We will engage our legal team and seek the annulment of this election. We are not here to play games. I will not accept the rules being changed in the middle of the game — once again, by Lula’s friends on the Supreme Federal Court," according to a translation.
The right-wing challenger emphasized that "what happened today was not normal. In fact, it was unacceptable."
Rogério Marinho, Bolsonaro's campaign chief, said that Zanin's decision was an "unfeasible action to disrupt the process of an election that they already lost at the ballot box," according to a translation.
Bolsonaro further said:
For the first time in history, a Supreme Court justice — who is also a former lawyer for Lula — issued a unilateral ruling at the request of a former law partner, changing the rules of the game while the game was already underway. At 5:01 PM, Justice Zanin — who is not even a member of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) — bypassed the specialized electoral judiciary and issued a decision extending the voting period by two hours. This had never happened before in the history of Brazil. There was a complete breakdown of equal treatment among Brazilians in different cities and states. I will never know how many votes I might have received in a state where the polls were not reopened. What took place is simply inexplicable.
The president of the Superior Electoral Court, Judge Kassio Nunes Marques, reinforced Bolsonaro's characterization, stating that Zanin's last-minute rule was legally groundless and unprecedented.
Nunes Marques said that there was "no regulation authorizing any extension" and that "never in the history of the TSE has there been any extension," according to a translation.
Despite these admissions, Nunes Marques defended the final result, stating, "There was no alteration resulting from the judicial decision. ... We have absolute security regarding the entire electoral process."
Raquel Machado, a professor at the Federal University of Ceará, told the New York Times that Bolsonaro can push for either a technical audit to determine whether the outcome was affected by unequal voting conditions or an abuse-of-power case through the TSE's inspector general, which could result in Lula's disqualification.
After claiming victory, Lula told supporters in Sao Paulo that "it was democracy that made this happen," according to the Guardian.
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