Lula da Silva Wins Brazilian Presidency

 

Right-winger Jair Bolsonaro’s claims of election fraud reduced to sour grapes as Brazil’s bulletproof voting process shames the United States’ swiss-cheese system

Workers’ Party (PT) candidate, former president Lula da Silva, won the Brazilian presidency with just over 50 percent of the vote in the runoff election held on October 30.

Incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing nationalist, received 49.10%.

Helping Lula achieve his narrow victory was the early support of alternate party candidates that came in third and fourth place in its election held on October 2, respectively Simone Tebet and Ciro Gomes, with 4% and 3%. While Lula prevailed on October 2 with 48.4% of the votes, a victory of over 50% is required to eliminate the need for a runoff election.

With a clear chain of ballot custody, the required presentation of government issued identification (ID), same-day voting at documented residential locations, site-specific paper tallies of ballots delivered in real-time (highly functional exit polls), no hackable internet connection for its electronic voting machines, open-source programming and no mail-in ballots, Bolsonaro’s repeated claims of election fraud remained unsubstantiated–even by the military that conducted an investigation at his urging in October during and after the first round of voting and found “nothing irregular.” Keep in mind Bolsonaro did not complain about the system when he was elected president in 2018.

Despite former U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign strategist, Steve Bannon’s assistance to Bolsonaro with his pre-emptive election disinformation campaign, Brazil is not the U.S., and Bolsonaro is not Trump. Bolsonaro, a former army paratrooper who rose to the rank of captain, has long praised Brazil’s military dictatorship, which controlled the country from 1964-1985.

Calling the military coup, a “defense of democracy,” he criticized the Brazilian military for “failing to finish the job.” Apparently, to Bolsonaro, the disappearance and killing of over 400 people were insufficient. Unlike Bolsonaro, Trump has no military experience and has a rocky road with U.S. Intelligence Agencies and the military.

Neither is former two-term President Lula da Silva similar to U.S. sitting President Joe Biden. Lula da Silva believes, “We have to make inequality a priority and not the spending cap.”  (more...)

Lula da Silva Wins Brazilian Presidency