Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro copycats Trump with baseless claims of voter fraud while raising fears of election violence worse than January 6
Tom Brenner/Reuters
- Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro is following Trump's lead by pushing baseless claims of mass voter fraud.
- Facing reelection next year, President Bolsonaro's approval numbers have plummeted.
- Bolsonaro is raising fears of the potential for violence if he doesn't accept the election result.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is again mimicking the behavior of former President Donald Trump by pushing unfounded claims of voter fraud as he vies for reelection.
Bolsonaro, the far right leader who's been called the "Brazilian Donald Trump" or the "Trump of the Tropics," is also raising fears he'll follow Trump's lead even further by objecting to the results if he loses at the polls next year - increasing the potential for violence.
"If he loses the election, he can mobilize the military forces, the police, the militias," Fernando Luiz Abrucio, a political scientist at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, told the New York Times. "The degree of violence could be much greater than the episode in the US Capitol."
With a rapidly declining approval rating amid his disastrous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Brazilian leader has been railing against his country's electronic voting system that has been in use for a quarter century. Bolsonaro wants voters to mark their choice on printed ballots or paper ballots, pushing the baseless notion that the current system opens the door for fraud.
Bolsonaro's attacks on the electoral process in Brazil are near-identical to Trump's efforts to undermine the voting process in the US in 2020, during which the US president zeroed in on mail-in voting. Like the Brazilian leader, Trump's poll numbers were in the dumps over much of the campaign season and his reelection prospects were dimming as he faced widespread criticism of his approach to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"If there are no printed ballots, it is a sign that there will be no election," Bolsonaro said during a speech in May.
Similarly, Trump during an interview last July said, "I think mail-in voting is going to rig the election."
Brazil's congress on Tuesday rejected a proposal pushed by Bolsonaro and his allies to require paper ballots. In the hours leading up to the vote, Bolsonaro's government held military parade in the capital of Brasilia that featured armored tanks. Critics said it was a blatant attempt to project strength and intimidate opponents.
-ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) August 11, 2021
Bolsonaro, who has openly defended the brutal dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985 and was responsible for many atrocities, in an interview two decades ago said he'd stage a military takeover of his country. Bolsonaro at the time said he'd mount a coup the "same day" he became president.
"There's not even the littlest doubt," Bolsonaro said in the interview. "I'd stage a coup the same day, the same day. Congress doesn't work. I'm sure at least 90 percent of people would party and clap."
President Joe Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, during a recent visit to Brazil warned Bolsonaro against undermining the integrity of his country's elections given no evidence of mass fraud in prior Brazilian elections, a US official told the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, per Reuters.
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