Jair Bolsonaro challenges Lula da Silva's victory in Brazil's presidential elections 

After his defeat in the Brazil presidential election, the outgoing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro filed a petition with Brazil's election authorities to challenge this year's result. Bolsonaro was contesting against leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, popularly known as “Lula, and has narrowly lost last month. Lula is due to be appointed as president on January 1 and Jair Bolsonaro filed a petition on November 22 in which he and his right-wing Liberal Party leaders have alleged that some voting machines had malfunctioned and any votes cast through them should be annulled.

This petition comes after Bolsonaro agreed to cooperate with the transfer of power and “continue to fulfill all commandments of the constitution.”

Bolsonaro challenges Brazil presidential election

The right-wing Liberal Party leaders cited an analysis which was conducted by a company hired by Bolsonaro’s party that claimed that removing those votes would hand Bolsonaro a sweeping victory. According to the election authorities, the same voting machines were used in the first round of elections. Further, the authorities asked the right-wing party leaders including Bolsonaro to amend their complaint to include those results in order for the process to make its way through the courts, reported CNN Brasil.  The chief justice of the Supreme Electoral Court, Alexandre Moraes, has given the order to amend their submission in the next twenty-four hours. But Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party requested that the chances were limited to second-round voting.

Later, Liberal Party officials held a press conference in which Liberal Party President Valdemar Costa Neto said, “We do not intend to stop anyone from taking office, just that they follow the law. If there are indications [of error], this ballot cannot be taken into account.” He further said that they are not asking to conduct elections again as that would be crazy. Overall, the press conference addressed the claims that some ballots used in the second round of elections could be liable to error. As per the final tally by the election authorities, Lula da Silva received more than 60 million votes which broke his own record of 2006.