RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro said Wednesday (21) in an interview with a radio station in São Paulo’s interior that he is not yet sure if he will run for re-election in 2022.
“I haven’t presented myself yet, I don’t know yet if I’m going to run,” Bolsonaro said in an interview with Jovem Pan radio station in Itapetininga, after criticizing former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whom he accused of already presenting himself as a presidential candidate.
Lula da Silva has also not yet officially announced his candidacy.
According to current election polls, leftist Lula da Silva currently enjoys the favor of the population. However, with elections still 15 months away, the tide may very well turn.
The polls favoring Lula were conducted when Congressman Luis Miranda publicly claimed that Jair Bolsonaro and his government were corrupt.
At the same time, the left publicly accused the sitting president of genocide with impunity because of the Covid-19 deaths, even though Brazil is better off per capita than Argentina and Colombia.
On Monday, the Federal Police asked Justice Rosa Weber of the Supreme Court (STF) to evaluate the government’s request to investigate federal deputy Luis Miranda (DEM-DF) for defamatory accusations in the purchase of the Indian Covid vaccine Covaxin.
Speaking to supporters Monday, Bolsonaro even said he did not know if he would run with the current electronic voting system.
Bolsonaro is campaigning for Congress to approve a system with printed ballots, but the constitutional amendment proposal is in danger of failing in the special committee analyzing it.
Bolsonaro fears that the current all-electronic system can be manipulated but is only laughed at by many because of it.
On the other hand, there is probably no denying that hackers worldwide are increasingly penetrating so-called secure systems. The Pegasus scandal, which is currently making headlines, is just one of many indications of it. The Superior Electoral Court, however, has stressed that the voting system and machines in Brazil are not connected to the internet.