After Brazil presidential vote loss, Bolsonaro silent

A press officer from the Brazilian Supreme Electoral Court: congratulating Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Vladimir Putin on Sunday’s election

The incumbent Jair Bolsonza hasn’t publicly acknowledged his loss after being defeated in the presidential election.

The delay in certifying the race contributed to fears that the President would not cooperate with a transferring of power. Ahead of the vote, Bolsonaro and some of his allies had made unfounded claims about electoral fraud and unfair treatment by the press.

In the case of Brazil, the president who lost would have conceded by now, said da Silva, as he told his supporters that he was happy and worried.

It is Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court that officially validates election results and communicates them to the Senate, Chamber of Deputies and State Assemblies.

CNN spoke with a press officer from the Electoral Court who said that the vote’s results are already considered to have been valid. A court session at a later point will formally confirm the win, but no date has been set for it yet, he said.

Electoral Court President Alexandre de Moraes on Sunday personally called both Lula da Silva and Bolsonaro to inform them of the results and congratulate them on their participation in the democratic process, according to a press release by the Court.

De Moraes also said he did not see much room for the election to be contested. “The result has been proclaimed, accepted and those who were elected will take office on January 1,” he said in the release.

President Biden has shown his support for Lula as he deals with Bolsonaro and extremist supporters. Immediately after the attacks of Jan. 8, Biden called Lula and invited him to the White House. He also was one of the first leaders in the world to congratulate Lula on his close electoral victory last October. During Bolsonaro’s two years in office, Brazil and the U.S. relations deteriorated.

“I send my congratulations to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on his election to be the next president of Brazil following free, fair, and credible elections,” US President Joe Biden said after Sunday’s vote.

And Russian President Vladimir Putin sent congratulations in a message reported by Russian state news agency TASS, adding: “The vote’s results confirm your high political authority.”

Brazil election result explainer intl-latam: The case of Lula da Silva and Prudente de Moraes

The President-elect’s diplomatic work is already underway, with Lula da Silva meeting Argentine President Alberto Fernandez – one of the first foreign leaders to congratulate him – in Sao Paulo on Monday.

In the beginning of the Brazilian republic, army marshall Floriano Peixoto did not attend the inauguration of Prudente de Moraes.

And almost a century later, the last of the unelected military presidents, João Batista Figueiredo, snubbed the inauguration of his successor José Sarney.

In both cases, the boycott was largely symbolic. The same would be true if Bolsonaro were to refuse to concede the presidency in a public statement, according to legal expert Augusto de Arruda Botelho.

He told CNN that not acknowledging the result is pointless from a political point of view because it is the Electoral Court who hands over power to the winner.

The pro-Bolsono truck drivers have been blocking the roads and highways, causing major delays and disruption in at least 19 states across the country.

A CNN crew said protesters were blocking a highway leading to the airport which caused an interruption in access. Some people had left their taxis and had started walking along the side of the highway to reach the terminal, the crew said. Very few cars had pulled up outside terminal 3 at the airport, suggesting that most cars had been caught in the blockade.

Some police officers on the road leading to the airport told CNN that they were afraid of upsetting the protesters and were trying to avoid confrontation.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/31/americas/brazil-election-result-explainer-intl-latam/index.html

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“We have a President that won at the ballot box and they defrauded the ballot boxes and put the other candidate ahead and we’re against that,” said Luis Valejo, a Bolsonaro supporter.

In the first public comments by any member of Bolsonaro’s inner circle since his election defeat, Bolsonaro’s son, Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro, took to Twitter on Monday afternoon to thank his father’s supporters, and urged them not to “give up.”

The order came after Brazil’s National Transport Confederation (CNT) said the roadblocks caused “inconvenience and damage to the whole society,” and said the protests should be categorized as “anti-democratic” and potential violations of the democratic rule of law.

His trip to Washington is being billed as a celebration of democracy — but economic development and migration will also be discussed, a senior administration official says. tackling climate change is a goal of the two leaders. They have similarities after recent events in both countries.

A group of Jair Bolsonaro supporters trashed the Congress, Supreme Court and the presidential offices in Brazil a month ago.

The comparison of the attack on Donald Trump by his supporters to the one on January 6 is frequently made. As well as the fact that both Trump and Bolsonaro, close allies, continue to spread false claims of electoral fraud.

Bolsonaro is currently in Florida. He arrived in the U.S. before the inauguration of Brazil’s president. It’s unclear how long he will stay away from Brazil, where he is under investigation for his role in the attacks last month. The former president is currently in the U.S.

The visit is an important “milestone” in restarting U.S.-Brazil ties, says Thiago de Aragāo, a political risk consultant in Brasilia and Washington. A photo with Biden in the White House is what Lula is looking for at this early point in his administration says Aragão, especially when it comes to his role tackling climate change. “Biden will legitimize Lula as one of the most important opinion makers among world leaders in the environmental agenda,” he said.

Lula also met with Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday, where they discussed how to increase international cooperation to protect the Amazon and preserve the environment for future generations. Lula also met with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has been a staunch voice against the U.S. granting refuge to Bolsonaro

Lula has promised to reverse Bolsonaro’s catastrophic environmental record, in which much of Brazil’s deforestation enforcement was dismantled. Lula has launched a massive operation to rid the country’s largest indigenous reserve of illegal miners.

Hundreds of federal agents have been sent to the Yanomami reserve in the northern Amazon to root out the illegal operations that have polluted the local rivers and land.

Biden pledged to set up a fund for Amazon protection. The Amazon Fund, which the US contributed to in the 90s, has begun again after BolsonARO took office. The fund gives money to deforestation prevention and sustainable development in the rainforest and is supported by Norway and Germany.

The two leaders don’t see eye to eye on everything, especially when it comes to foreign policy. Russia is notCondemned in the current war in Ukraine. In fact, the Brazilian leader has proposed leading a so-called “Peace Club” of non-aligned states, including India, to help mediate an end to the conflict.