The far-right party of President Jair Bolsonaro filed a protest against the outcome of the presidential election in Brazil, but the electoral court dismissed it.
He barely lost to the former leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and his Liberal Party (PL) asserted that voting machines were tampered with without providing any supporting data.
The party was fined 22.9 million reais (£3.5 million; $4.3 million) by the court for making the complaint “in bad faith.”
On January 1st, Lula assumes office.
The PL lawsuit, according to Alexandre de Moraes, president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), was “offensive to democratic values” and attempted to “promote criminal and anti-democratic movements.”
The TSE has certified Lula’s victory over Mr. Bolsonaro, who received 50.9% of the vote to his 49.1%.
In the past, Mr. Bolsonaro has asserted that Brazil’s computerized voting system is not entirely secure against fraud.
He has approved a presidential transition but has not yet admitted defeat. After he was defeated in the election on October 30, he withdrew from the public eye.
Following the announcement of Lula’s victory, numerous Bolsonaro-supporting truck truckers set up barriers and got into altercations with the police. However, Mr. Bolsonaro then informed them that road blockades were not a part of “legal” demonstrations.
Some of his supporters have persisted in holding demonstrations in front of military bases, calling for a military intervention to stop Lula from assuming power.
Lula, who presided from 2003 to 2010, will take office at the age of 77, making her the oldest ever to do so.
His triumph represented a spectacular comeback for a politician who was unable to run in the 2018 presidential election due to his incarceration and ban from holding public office. However, his corruption conviction was later overturned.
Former army captain Mr. Bolsonaro received a lot of support from conservatives and evangelical Christians eager to uphold traditional family values. But during his administration, the Amazon was rapidly being cleared of trees, and inequality increased.
