Bolsonaro’s party recognizes Brazil election result. But he hasn’t conceded

Brazil’s Liberal Party, the party behind presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, on Monday recognized the election results leading to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s victory, even though the far-right leader has not conceded.

Party president Valdemar Costa Neto said in a statement posted on the social platform X that the party recognizes the election results but that there were “questions raised about the vote” that need clarification.

“We recognize the presidential result proclaimed by the electoral court, but believe that the questions raised need to be properly clarified through a balanced and democratic political debate,” Neto said.

Da Silva, commonly known as Lula, defeated Bolsonaro after the country’s electoral court announced that the president led by 4.4 million votes in the second round of voting.

Bolsonaro had called for the election results to be annulled after Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin permitted Bolsonaro’s and Lula’s requests to keep polls open amid issues with flooding and transportation, respectively. The Brazilian outlet Folha de S Paulo reported that allies urged Bolsonaro to drop his calls for the results to be annulled.

After Bolsonaro’s loss, Argentinian news outlet Infobae reported that he traveled from Brazil into the province of Misiones. Another Argentinian newspaper, La Nacion, reported that an aircraft used to transport Bolsonaro landed in Iguazu late Monday and was expected to leave early Tuesday before its flight was canceled.

But the press office of Argentinian President Javier Milei denied Infobae’s reporting in a text to Bloomberg News.

“Argentina’s Migrations Office has no record of any entry by Flavio Bolsonaro into the Argentine Republic,” the press office told the outlet.

Another government spokesperson said Tuesday that there had been no request for asylum in Argentina from Bolsonaro, Bloomberg reported.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Bolsonaro to surrender his passports and barred him from leaving the country, The Guardian reported. The order comes after Bolsonaro’s brother, Eduardo, said his brother should leave Brazil if he lost to Lula. The order refers to a criminal case over Bolsonaro’s alleged involvement in a money-laundering scheme.

Bolsonaro acknowledged the order in an Instagram video on Monday, saying he went to meet with his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest in the capital of Brasília.

The former candidate said “Lula’s federal police were at his door and in the middle of the street, and I was served with an order to hand over my passports and I am also prohibited from leaving the country.”

Lula received praise from world leaders and U.S. Democratic lawmakers for his election win, with many saying Brazil’s voters chose democracy. But some allies to the Bolsonaro family, including President Trump, questioned the results.

“It looked terrible to me,” the president told reporters Monday night. “I didn’t take sides, but it looked like another rigged election, frankly. It was a terrible look for the world. Elections have to be indisputable, and it looked very bad to me.”