MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolsonaro vows not to concede defeat if he loses elections through fraud

“They took Lula out of jail to make him president through fraud. This will not happen!” warned Bolsonaro

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro Thursday warned he would not hand over his sash to anyone if he is beaten through electoral fraud.

Bolsonaro specified that former President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva was released from jail even though his crimes “were unbelievable,” to make sure that he would win the next elections through unlawful means and, in Bolsonaro's view, that was the reason behind three members of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) opposed print ballots and insisted on using electronic devices.

“I hand the presidential sash to anyone who beats me cleanly at the ballot box. In fraud, no!“ said Bolsonaro. “They took Lula out of jail… His crimes are unbelievable. The whistleblowers returned more than R$ 3 billion through the awarded whistleblower, money was stolen. At Petrobras, we currently pay more than R$ 20 billion a year for past robberies. Caixa Econômica was just a robbery. We had a robbery at the Post Office. They bought stock from Venezuela. Imagine your pension fund invested in Venezuelan bonds. It's obvious that he's a thief. So, they took a thief out of jail, made the thief eligible, in my opinion, to be president through fraud, because in votes he doesn't win. So I won't admit a defraudable system,” snapped Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro criticized STF Justices Edson Fachin, Alexandre de Moraes and Luís Roberto Barroso for opposing the printed vote in the National Congress. “There are three ministers of the Supreme who do not want an auditable vote” and are looking for parliamentarians leaders to vote against the printed vote, the President explained.

He insisted he only wanted “transparency” and that if Congress does not approve printed ballots they will have to come up with some other way to prove that the election was not fraudulent.

If that happens, “we're going to have problems,” Bolsonaro went on and underscored the need for an “auditable vote to be sure who the people vote for is going to be elected.”

“As it is, fraud is wide open. And it won't be just for the president: it will be for the governor, senator...”

Bolsonaro claimed the three STF judges were worried about a possible judicialization of the elections and underlined once again the importance of “having reliable elections, with the public counting of votes. Otherwise, we're going to have problems next year in Brazil. I'm getting ahead of it because transparency is the expression of democracy. It's no use coming up with a little argument that it's too expensive. The money is there to buy printers.”

The President insisted that “we want clean elections next year, because they took Lula out of jail, made him eligible, for him to be president through fraud. This will not happen!”