The election in Brazil: somehow the left manages to win
And this was the way it happened: the polling stations were ordered to stay open two more hours. A judge in leftist Lula’s camp made the ruling, and it came too late for some areas where the polls had already closed and so it was apparently applied differentially.
The result was that Lula won a victory after having been behind in the original election (this was a runoff because neither candidate reached 51% in the first round). The Bolsonaro supporters are angry and contend that the two-hour election extension was unfair – although, by the way, Bolsonaro had also asked for it for different reasons (weather). The question is whether the judge had the authority to order it, and whether it gave the Lula areas an unfair advantage because more of the areas that ended up staying open were Lula strongholds.
It’s somewhat difficult to get reliable and detailed information on this, but it is highly suspicious.
More here.
Bolsonaro has asked for the results to be annulled.
Good luck with that. If fraud has indeed occurred, it’s almost impossible to change the results and have a do-over – and those who challenge the results are demonized. Thing is, sometimes fraud allegations are themselves fraudulent – and sometimes they’re true.
NOTE: Hugh Hewitt wrote a book in 2004 entitled If It’s Not Close They Can’t Cheat. However, many national elections these days seem to be quite close, so it stands to reason that they can cheat.
A little 5th Brazilian Republic military junta is sounding pretty good right about now.
Democrats are going to cheat. We all know that. It would be really helpful if we didn’t have to fight the Bush/McCain/Murkowski wing of the GOP as well.
The blogger formerly known as Whiskey wrote on his Substack today:
“The GOP being the Washington Generals and ‘failure theater’ have never provided any action to get rid of the fraudulent ballots and voting. People like Thune, Cornyn, and Tillis all worked hand in glove with Schumer to prevent voter ID. I have to show my ID to buy beer, but not to vote. Most of the GOP wants Trump gone, even if it means a Communist / Islamic revolution, because they are stupid enough to think they will still be able to play the Washington Generals and failure theater with the Senate, Supreme Court, and Presidency gone, and a “Committee of Public Safety” ruling things for China. And Iran.”
And “unexpectedly”:
1. Brazil’s stock market plunged 10% in the first hour of trading Monday, triggering an automatic halt to trading.
2. Futures contracts on the Ibovespa, Brazil’s main stock index, fell nearly 20% at the worst point.
3. The U.S. dollar rose 12% against the Brazilian Real.