Brazil's electoral court deals Bolsonaro election challenge a blow
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The head of Brazil's electoral authority rejects Bolsonaro and his political party's request to annul ballots cast.
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Outgoing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (UPI/License Photo)
A court document revealed that Alexandre de Moraes, the head of Brazil's electoral court, rejected a complaint from President Jair Bolsonaro's allies seeking to challenge the presidential election, which the incumbent won by a narrow margin.
In the October 30 runoff election, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defeated Bolsonaro, marking a stunning comeback for the leftist former President and the end of Brazil's most right-wing government in decades.
Moraes, a Supreme Court justice, also fined the parties in Bolsonaro's coalition 22.9 million reais ($4.27 million) for what the court described as bad faith litigation, according to the document.
Bolsonaro's Liberal Party (PL) filed a complaint on Tuesday to challenge the election's outcome, claiming that some of the electronic voting machines were flawed and that those votes should be invalidated, an argument that election officials dismissed.
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Political funds for the President's coalition parties have been ordered blocked until the fine is paid, according to the terms of Wednesday's electoral court decision. The ruling also ordered an investigation into PL head Valdemar da Costa Neto's possible misuse of the party's structure and funds.
Moraes described the challenge as "offensive" to democratic norms in his ruling, adding that it aimed to encourage criminal and anti-democratic movements.
"The ballot boxes generate files that make it possible to identify precisely which equipment they were generated on. When one of these mechanisms stops working, others replace it, without affecting its traceability and the possibility of identifying ballot boxes," according to the decision.
Election experts and political analysts slammed Bolsonaro's allies' election challenge as weak on the merits, but it could still energize supporters who have been protesting his defeat at the polls.
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