President Donald Trump said on 26 October that Brazil's runoff looked 'rigged' and 'corrupt', while adding that he likes Lula; electoral officials say the extended voting hours did not change the result.
US President Donald Trump said on Monday 26 October that Brazil's presidential runoff looked "like another rigged election", without providing any evidence, a day after the leftist incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat the right-wing candidate Flávio Bolsonaro. Euronews and DW both report that Trump told reporters the vote "looked terrible" and "so corrupt", while insisting he had not taken sides and saying he likes Lula and gets along with him. Pressed on whether he wanted to act on the result, he indicated he did not, saying he was running the United States, not Brazil.
Trump focused on how the vote was run, saying the way it was tabulated and the extension given "was very strange". According to DW, the two-hour extension of voting was ordered after transport problems in several cities made it hard for people to reach polling stations, and Bolsonaro's own campaign had asked for more time in some regions because of heavy rain. Electoral officials say the extension did not change the outcome. DW reports that Lula won about 51.7% of the vote to Bolsonaro's 48.2%, according to official results.
The remarks add an international dimension to a disputed aftermath. Bolsonaro has said it was "impossible" to recognise the result and has sought its annulment, but his Liberal Party has since acknowledged Lula's victory while saying the issues raised should be clarified. Euronews reports that Bolsonaro has said he will "organise the opposition" and that he was told to surrender his passports and not to leave Brazil; he attributed the order to Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, though DW notes neither the court nor federal police had confirmed it. The embedded Euronews video reports Trump's comments; it does not by itself establish any of the claims about the election's conduct.
