Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, who lost Brazil's presidential runoff to incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said he would seek to annul the election, citing the Supreme Court's decision to extend voting hours.
Bolsonaro said in a brief speech in Brasilia after the count that it was impossible to accept the result and that he would ask for the election to be voided, according to AFP and APTN on the 25th, local time. He also said there was no way to know how many more votes he could have won in states where polling stations did not reopen, and argued that voters had been treated differently depending on where they lived.
His objection centers on the confusion caused when Brazil's Supreme Court extended voting hours by two hours after some polling stations had already closed. Lula's campaign had requested the extension that afternoon, saying disruptions to public transit in some states were making it difficult for voters to reach polling stations.
The areas where Lula's campaign reported transit delays included the northeastern state of Bahia, a core base of support for the president and a stronghold of the left, and Sao Paulo, the state with the largest number of voters. Lula said something terrible was happening and that nearly 40% of buses in Sao Paulo had been pulled from service.
Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin then extended the closing time for voting to 7 p.m. local time from 5 p.m. The decision came shortly after the original closing time had passed. Zanin added that the extension applied only to polling stations where voting had not yet ended.
Bolsonaro's campaign objected, noting that Zanin had previously served as Lula's personal lawyer. The campaign's election chief called Zanin's decision shameful and badly timed, according to the Financial Times. Bolsonaro's campaign, however, had also requested extended voting hours in some southern states, where conservative support is strong, citing bad weather and other reasons.
Despite the objections, electoral authorities confirmed Lula's victory. Cassio Nunes Marques, president of the Superior Electoral Court, who was nominated to the Supreme Court by the senator's father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, confirmed that Lula's term would begin on Jan. 5 next year. He said the extension of voting hours had not affected the outcome.
The senator's request is unlikely to succeed. Reuters reported that Lula won with 51.8% of the vote, defeating Bolsonaro by about 4.4 million votes, and that the Bolsonaro campaign had also sought an extension — factors that work against annulment. Still, if Bolsonaro continues to contest the result, large-scale protests in Brazil are likely. Some have voiced concern about a repeat of the riots, when supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings after he refused to accept his narrow defeat to Lula.