The president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, who is seeking re-election on Sunday, questioned this Monday that "the same judges who took out of jail" opposition candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are now at the forefront of the electoral process.
"The same judges who got Lula out of jail and made him eligible are exactly the same ones who lead the Brazilian electoral process."Bolsonaro said in an interview granted to the Record television channel in the last week ahead of the October 2 elections.
Bolsonaro thus linked the annulment of Lula’s sentences, decreed by the Supreme Court in 2021, with the decisions against him adopted by the Superior Electoral Court, the entity that organizes the elections and is partly made up of the same magistrates.
The Supreme Court annulled the two sentences against Lula for corruption, for which he served 580 days in jail, due to problems of jurisdiction and irregularities in the process.
In his opinion, the judges "hinder" the participation of the Ministry of Defense as an observer of the electoral process, something that for Bolsonaro prevents "avoid the possibility of suspicion at the end of the elections".
The leader of the extreme right has repeatedly raised his voice against the Brazilian electoral system of electronic voting, which was implemented since 1996 and until now has never had a complaint of proven fraud in the elections.
In the event of a defeat, as predicted by voting intention polls, which put him 17 percentage points behind Lula, Bolsonaro assured that he will respect "no problem" the result of some "clean elections".
However, the president said that he is a victim of "political persecution" by the Electoral Justice, for having prevented him from broadcasting on social networks from the presidential residence and using images of the official acts for the bicentennial of independence, which he transformed into a campaign act.
Bolsonaro’s repeated criticism of the electoral system has prompted a strong reaction from numerous institutions and groups of businessmen, academics and social groups, who have positioned themselves in favor of democracy.
Brazil celebrates this Sunday the most polarized elections in its recent history, between Bolsonaro and former President Lula, who leads a coalition of ten progressive parties.
