Claims that a Lula ally unilaterally extended Brazil’s voting hours leave out that both campaigns had sought extensions and that another justice was approached first.

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Before calling the result rigged, establish who requested the extension, what the order covered, and whether it changed the outcome.

Mario Nawfal@MarioNawfal
🇧🇷 Brazil’s election ended with Lula winning by 4.4 million votes… and half the country asking HOW?!?!

Going into yesterday, Flávio Bolsonaro was the CLEAR betting favorite at around 80% on Polymarket.

Then, minutes after polls were supposed to close, a Supreme Court justice stepped in and extended voting nationwide by 2 hours, without waiting for the electoral court to rule.

That justice, Cristiano Zanin, used to be Lula’s PERSONAL DEFENSE LAWYER in the Car Wash corruption case, and Lula appointed him to the court. (Which might explain that look of pure devotion in the photo.)

Both campaigns had asked for more time, but the order caused chaos.

Stations that had already closed had to stay shut, machines in parts of Rio couldn’t be restarted, and the vote count was frozen.

When counting resumed, Flávio briefly LED. But the betting markets flipped to Lula about an hour before the official count did.

Bolsonaro is refusing to concede and wants the entire runoff annulled, calling the extension an illegal rule change by a judge tied to his opponent.

When Lula’s former lawyer rewrites the rules mid-vote, the least Brazil deserves is a full investigation.

If it’s all clean, what’s there to fear?

Sources: Latin Times, The Rio Times, The Guardian, Reuters / Writer: Julie

Factcheck:

Both campaigns requested extensions from TSE president Kassio Nunes Marques (Bolsonaro nominee): Lula’s over reduced free transport (mainly Bahia and other areas), Flávio’s over rains in specific SP/PR/SC municipalities. Kassio sought info (including 30-min explanations); Lula side then went to STF. Zanin ordered a nationwide extension near 17h closing, limited to still-open stations. In SP, ~80% had closed (TRE-SP figure). TSE confirmed the process held and results stood.

ROUND TWO BROKEN DOWN

Round 1:
– Flávio had 56.10M votes
– Lula had 53.88M votes

– Ten eliminated candidates shared 9.32M
– 5.98M ballots were blank or null
– 33.47M registered voters stayed home

Round 2:
– both kept their bases and added votes
– Lula reached 64.26M (+10.38M)
– Flávio 59.83M (+3.72M)
– a combined gain of 14.10M

Where the 14.10M came from? It’s hard to say, we can’t assume that every person followed the endorsement and voted for Flavio. Many might just stayed home as their candidate is out of the race.

Importantly, many people did not went to vote for Lula in the first round and stayed home because he was leading in the polls and it was certain that he will reach the second round or win. So why go stand in line twice?

Many came out to vote in the decisive second round, not bothering with the first.

It’s hard to say for certain, but you can’t assume that all right wing voters flocked to Flavio … many stayed home cause their candidate is out, this is normal.

Just my 5 cents.

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