In a meeting with evangelical leaders on Saturday, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro outlined what he sees as the three possibilities for him in the 2022 presidential election: “being arrested, killed, or victory.”
He went onto say: “I'm certain that the first alternative, being arrested, won’t happen. No man on Earth scares me. I’m conscious that I’m doing the right thing. I owe nobody anything.”
Bolsonaro has in recent months doubled down on claims that the election next year, when he will run for a second term, will be rigged in favour of the opposition unless electoral authorities introduce a paper ballot.
In fact, Bolsonaro has even repeatedly warned that he will not accept the results of the 2022 election if he loses unless Congress approves a change to the electronic voting system that has been in place since 1996. However, a number of judges and political experts have rejected these claims as baseless.
Moreover, earlier this month, his proposal was defeated in Congress, with just 229 votes in favour, well below the 308 required. The Superior Electoral Court (TSE), alongside various experts and reports, has repeatedly said that the possibility for fraud is “not feasible.” In fact, on August 2, a group of 18 active and former Supreme Court justice said that Brazil’s electoral system is “free of fraud.”
The electoral court once again reaffirmed its stance on the voting system last Wednesday, calling Bolsonaro’s efforts to undermine the system a “waste of focus.”
Bolsonaro’s antics with regards to the voting system are seen by many as a ploy to deflect attention from his waning popularity.
A recent poll shows that a majority of citizens would approve of his impeachment, and his approval rating is reportedly at 24%. This is largely a result of his mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has thus far resulted in close to 21 million cases and over 579,000 deaths. In fact, a poll conducted by PoderData across 433 municipalities in Brazil’s 27 states shows that 58% of people want Bolsonaro to be impeached.
Against this backdrop, former President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva’s popularity has surged, with polls suggesting that Lula would win the election if it were held today. Lula, who was in office from 2003 to 2011, was recently cleared of all corruption charges, allowing him to run in the October 2022 election.
Prior to Bolsonaro’s comments on Saturday, thousands of Indigenous people protested in front of the presidential palace on Friday over a supreme court ruling on their ancestral lands that will allow for greater agricultural expansion.
Bolsonaro was quick to dismiss their concerns, however, saying, “There are now approximately 5,000 people camped in Brasília. The vast majority, almost all, don't know what they are doing there.” He added, “They are people that are gathered by the MST (Rural Landless Workers Movements), people that are gathered by Cimi (Indigenous Missionary Council, linked to the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil), indigenous people who are there protesting against no one knows what.”
In a similarly combative tone two weeks ago, Bolsonaro called on the Senate to impeach Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has criticised Bolsonaro for spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic and the country’s electronic voting system. In fact, he has even ruled that Bolsonaro must be investigated for making uncorroborated claims about fraud in the voting system.