Bolsonaro: Unless Brazil Has Printed Ballots in 2022, It Will Have Worse Problems Than U.S.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The day after the invasion of the U.S. Capitol, President Jair Bolsonaro said that the lack of confidence in the elections led to “this problem that is happening there” and that, “if we have electronic voting” in Brazil in 2022, “it will be the same thing” or “we will have a worse problem than the United States.”

After the President put forth his theory, offering no supporting evidence, Justice Barroso, head of the Superior Electoral Court, says the Court deals with ‘facts and evidence’; Chamber of Deputy President Maia said that the President manages to ‘top Trump’s delusions and reveries’.

Bolsonaro seized the opertunity of this unprecedented attack on American democracy to repeat, with no evidence, the suspicions he often spreads about Brazilian electronic voting – a different model from that used in the United States.

On Wednesday, January 6, the congressional session that confirmed Joe Biden’s victory was interrupted when a crowd inflamed by President Donald Trump invaded the Capitol.

Unlike other governments, which condemned the event, the Brazilian administration failed to comment. On Thursday, January 7th, Bolsonaro spoke about the U.S. situation with supporters in the Alvorada Palace garden.

“If we don’t have the printed ballot in 2022, or a way to audit the vote, we’re going to have a worse problem than the United States,” said Bolsonaro to supporters.

Although American authorities deny evidence of fraud, he insisted on this theory.

“People have to analyze what happened in the U.S. elections now. Basically, what the problem was, the cause of this whole crisis. A lack of confidence in the vote. So, there, votes were “boosted” by the possibility of sending ballots by mail because of the pandemic and there were people there who voted three, four times, dead people who voted. It was chaos there. No one can deny that,” said Bolsonaro.

“So, this lack of confidence led to this problem happening there. And here in Brazil, if we have electronic voting in 2022, it will be the same thing,” said the President.

The mail vote criticized by Bolsonaro is not possible in the Brazilian model, which uses only the electronic ballot boxes – they were used for the first time in the whole country in the year 2000.

In March 2020, Bolsonaro promised to “soon” produce evidence of fraud in the 2018 election – he said he should have been elected in the first round, and should not have had to run in the second.

“I believe, based on the evidence I hold, that I will soon show, that I was elected in the first round,” said Bolsonaro at the time. “We not only have one word, we have evidence of this. We must approve a safe system of counting votes in Brazil,” he said.

However, almost a year later, Bolsonaro has never presented any evidence.

A Datafolha survey conducted between December 8th and 10th showed that 73% of Brazilians believe that electronic voting should be maintained. Paper ballots, which were abandoned in the 1990s, are supported by 23% of the population.

Of the total number of respondents, 69% said they trust the computerized voting system, which was gradually adopted in 1996. Another 29% said they do not trust it.

On Thursday, in the 17-minute video released by a Bolsonarist channel, the President made several attacks on the press in connection with its election coverage.

“Fraud exists. Then the press will say ‘without evidence, he says fraud exists’. I won’t answer these press scoundrels anymore. I was elected because I got many votes in 2018. I’m not saying that I’m going to be a candidate or that I’m going to run in the elections,” said Bolsonaro.

On Thursday, the Brazilian President also criticized the fact that Trump had his social media blocked after publications favorable to invaders. “You see: yesterday, in the United States, they blocked Trump on social media. An elected President, still President, has his media blocked”, declared Bolsonaro.

Chamber president Rodrigo Maia refuted the chief executive on Thursday afternoon.

“President Bolsonaro’s statement is a direct and very serious attack on the TSE (Electroral Court) and its judges. Political parties should ask the courts to demand the President to explain himself. Bolsonaro manages to top Trump’s delusions and reveries,” said Maia on social media.

TSE chief judge Luís Roberto Barroso reacted to Bolsonaro’s statement that there was fraud in the elections that made him President in 2018.

According to him, “the TSEdeals with facts and evidence, which must be submitted through proper channels”. He added: “Potential evidence, if produced, will be examined thoroughly by the court.”

TSE vice-president Edson Fachin, who will head the court between March and August 2022, released a note condemning the invasion in the American Capitol. The Justice also stated that the “violence committed against the U.S. Congress should place Brazilian democracy on alert.”

“In October 2022 Brazil will go to the polls for the presidential elections. Periodic elections, in compliance with the rules established in the Constitution, and an Electoral Court fighting misinformation are indispensable for democracy and for the respect of the rights of future generations,” he stressed.

According to the magistrate, “democracy has no room for those who abuse it” and those who destabilize the renewal of power should be held accountable.

“To be alert to the abyss ahead, to defend the autonomy and integrity of the Electoral Court, and to hold those who attack the constitutional order accountable, are imperatives for the defense of democracies,” he emphasized.

The goal of movements like the one in the United States, according to Fachin, is “to produce economic, legal and political havoc by destroying the foundations of moral and material life.”

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a member of the TSE and Court chief in the 2022 elections, had already commented on the U.S. Congress raid on social media on Wednesday, January 6th. Moraes is the rapporteur of inquiries into the spread of fake news and antidemocratic rallies in Brazil.

“The U.S. will certainly know how to hold the groups that severely attacked its republican history accountable. Present or digital militias, hate speeches and attacks on institutions erode democracy and destroy hope for a better and more equal future,” he wrote.

Three days before Christmas, Bolsonaro again advocated the approval of a PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) submitted by political ally and federal deputy Bia Kicis that provides for the printing of a copy of the vote registered in the electronic ballot box for subsequent verification.

“If we don’t have a printed vote, you can forget about the elections,” he replied to a supporter who asked him about 2022, when he is expected to run for reelection.

In a recent video on his YouTube channel, Federal Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro said that “70% or more of the population don’t trust the current system”. He also reiterated support for the PEC that establishes the printed copy.

A measure demanding printed copies was passed by Congress in 2015, but was declared unconstitutional by the Federal Supreme Court in September 2020. The Court considered that this would jeopardize voting confidentiality and freedom, thereby increasing insecurity and favoring manipulation.