Flávio Bolsonaro Wants Poll Workers Watched

BRAZIL · ELECTION DAY · POLL WORKERS

Presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro told supporters in a live video on Saturday night to return to their polling places after 5 p.m. on Sunday and monitor the poll workers, a request that two Brazilian newspapers say rests on a false claim.

Flávio Bolsonaro, the Liberal Party (PL) candidate in the Brazil election 2026 runoff, told supporters in a live video on Saturday night, 24 October, to return to their polling places when voting ends at 5 p.m. on Sunday and “fiscalizar,” or monitor, the poll workers, Folha and Estadão reported. Voting runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Brasília (7 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET), and our Brazil runoff date page explains when results arrive.

Both newspapers call the claim behind his request false, and the electoral court ordered a similar audio removed on Friday, which matters to US readers because Brazil is Latin America’s largest economy and its count is what investors are waiting for. The latest surveys are on our Brazil election polls page and the bettors’ view is on our Brazil election odds page, so this article covers only what he said and what the rules allow.

What He Said on Saturday

Folha reported that Flávio Bolsonaro made the call in a live video on social media on Saturday night, 24 October, and quoted him telling viewers to keep monitoring once the voting is over. The Rio Times has not seen the video, and Estadão’s transcript of the same passage differs slightly in wording from Folha’s.

Folha wrote that he repeated a false claim that poll workers register votes in the names of absent voters in Lula’s favor, although in the passages it quoted he spoke of nobody “helping either side.” Estadão added that he asked supporters to accredit themselves on a website and, without presenting evidence, said there are always ill-intentioned people who could use the end of voting to record votes for people who did not turn up.

Estadão wrote that, according to him, the aim is only for supporters to “look” and see “if no one is going to do anything wrong.” Both papers place the video on the eve of the runoff.

What the Electoral Court Did on Friday

On Friday 23 October the court’s Electoral Inspector General, Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva, ordered the removal of an audio from the WhatsApp channel “Tropa do Flávio” that says poll workers, especially in the Northeast, were voting in place of absent voters to favor Lula. The court’s news item calls the audio false and says it “reproduces false information already debunked by the Electoral Justice.”

The court attributes the audio to federal deputy Gustavo Gayer and says it had about 25,000 forwards by 2:16 p.m. on Friday in a channel with more than 2.1 million followers. Estadão describes the channel as one backing Flávio Bolsonaro and says Gayer did not answer its request for comment.

Cueva gave the investigated parties two hours from notification to take the content down, under a fine of R$100,000 (about US$19,900 at the central bank’s PTAX rate of R$5.0377 per US$1 on Friday 23 October) for each hour of non-compliance. The court says he judged that spreading such content on the eve of voting risks confidence in the process, although he found suspending the whole channel excessive for now.

The order came in an action brought by the Brasil Pronto pra Mais coalition against Flávio Bolsonaro and his running mate, Alfredo Gaspar, and the defendants have five days to answer. It covers the audio, not Saturday’s video, and The Rio Times found no court ruling on the video as of early Sunday.

What the Rules Allow

Brazilian law lets parties and coalitions monitor every phase of voting and counting, and Law 9,504 of 1997 says the credentials of their monitors are issued only by the parties or coalitions themselves. Each may accredit at most two monitors per polling section during voting, and nobody under 18 or already serving as a poll worker can be named.

Under the Electoral Code, only the poll workers, the candidates, one monitor and one delegate of each party and, while voting, the voter may stay in the voting room. The president of the table is the top authority there and removes from the room or building anyone who does not keep order and commits an act against electoral freedom.

The code also makes it a crime to cause disorder that harms the voting work, with up to two months in detention plus a fine, and to hinder or obstruct someone’s vote, with up to six months plus a fine. These rules do not mention calls like Saturday’s, and whether any act at a polling place breaks them is for the electoral judges to decide.

Folha reported that Rogério Marinho, a Liberal Party senator and political coordinator of Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign, said at a meeting on Wednesday 7 October that 50,000 people had registered as monitors in the first round and that the runoff goal was triple that. Revista Fórum, a progressive magazine, wrote that the call could cause crowds and disorder, but it named no authority and no rule.

How Voting Closes at 5 P.M.

The court says voting officially ends at 5 p.m. in Brasília, but anyone still in line at that moment has the right to vote, and a section closes only after every voter who received a ticket has finished. Estadão, relaying the Electoral Justice, wrote that votes recorded after 5 p.m. are therefore not a sign of fraud.

Estadão also relayed that the Electoral Justice uses several procedures to identify each voter and register attendance so that nobody votes in another person’s place, and that after the election it cross-checks attendance records against absence justifications. The court’s president, Kassio Nunes Marques, asked the public in a nationwide broadcast on Saturday 24 October to stay vigilant and apply critical sense to sensational or accusatory messages against any candidate or against the Electoral Justice, Agência Brasil reported.

What It Means for You

Brazil is Latin America’s largest economy, with a gross domestic product of about US$2.19 trillion in 2024, and US investors, companies and officials will be watching the 5 p.m. close in Brasília (4 p.m. ET), when the court starts publishing results. Brazilian and US stock markets are closed on Sunday, so the first market reaction to the count comes on Monday 26 October.

Final surveys by Quaest, AtlasIntel, PoderData and Futura put the two candidates within about three points of each other in valid votes, so how quickly both sides accept the count matters to US investors. This article does not forecast a dispute, and it reports only what was said on Saturday and what the rules allow.

Folha reported that the court briefed ambassadors, international organizations and observer missions from 49 countries on Saturday 24 October, and that in July Flávio Bolsonaro had asked diplomats to send as many international observers as possible. The court’s section-by-section files and the report posted at each polling room are the primary record for anyone checking a claim about the count.

What Prediction Markets Say

On Polymarket, a prediction market, traders gave Flávio Bolsonaro about 80% and Lula 20.5% for winning the presidency at 5:05 a.m. ET on Sunday 25 October. The Brazil Presidential Election market has drawn about US$197 million in trading, including about US$28 million on the Flávio Bolsonaro contract and about US$31 million on the Lula contract.

Over the past week the Flávio Bolsonaro price slipped by about 1 percentage point, according to Polymarket’s own data. The market’s listed end date is 11:59 p.m. ET on Sunday 25 October.

These prices are bets, not polls and not results, and they cannot show whether the call changed any voter’s mind. Live prices are shown below.

Why we show this: prediction markets turn real-money bets into a live probability that moves within minutes of the news, which is why investors, campaigns and newsrooms in the United States now follow them closely. We show them next to polls and official results, never instead of them.

What Is Not Known

The Rio Times has not seen the video, so the quotes above are our translations from Folha and Estadão, whose transcriptions of the same passage differ slightly in wording. In the passages the two papers quote he does not mention Lula, and Folha’s statement that the claim favors Lula is the paper’s own description.

It is not known whether the electoral court or the Lula campaign will respond to the call, because The Rio Times found no statement from either by early Sunday. Nor is it known how many supporters will gather, since we found no published count of monitors accredited for the runoff, only the first-round figure and the goal Folha reported.

Revista Fórum’s statement that authorities and legal experts raised an alarm is unconfirmed, because the magazine names no one. Flávio Bolsonaro offered no evidence for the claim, according to Estadão, and none of the reports we read cites a case of a poll worker casting a vote for an absent voter in this election.

Frequently Asked Questions

What did Flávio Bolsonaro ask his supporters to do?

Folha and Estadão report that in a live video on Saturday 24 October he asked supporters to go to their polling places after 5 p.m. and monitor the poll workers. He said the aim is a clean, transparent and safe election.

Can supporters legally monitor poll workers in Brazil?

Parties and coalitions may accredit up to two monitors per polling section, with credentials issued only by the party or coalition. Only poll workers, candidates, one monitor and one delegate per party, and the voter may stay in the voting room.

Can poll workers vote in place of absent voters?

Folha and Estadão call that claim false, and the electoral court ordered a similar audio removed on Friday 23 October. Estadão, citing the court, says several identification and attendance checks exist and a vote recorded after 5 p.m. is not a sign of fraud.

What happens at 5 p.m. on voting day?

Voting ends officially, but anyone still in line may vote, and the section closes after the last voter finishes. The machine then prints the ballot-box report in five copies, and one is posted on the door.

When does the court publish results?

The court starts publishing results at 5 p.m. in Brasília (4 p.m. ET) on Sunday 25 October. It also publishes the data of every polling section online.

Sources: Folha de S.Paulo, 24 October 2026, Estadão, 24 October 2026, Revista Fórum, 24 October 2026, Superior Electoral Court (TSE), order on the audio, 23 October 2026, TSE, how the vote is closed and counted, TSE, voting hours and release of results, Law 9,504 of 1997, articles 65 and 66, Electoral Code, articles 120, 139, 140, 153, 296 and 297, Agência Brasil, 24 October 2026, Banco Central do Brasil, PTAX rate, 23 October 2026, World Bank, GDP 2024, Polymarket, Brazil Presidential Election market, CNN Brasil, runoff poll headlines, 25 October 2026. All opened on Sunday 25 October 2026. Quotes from Folha and Estadão are The Rio Times’s translations of their Portuguese.

This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief