Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro Launches His Re-election Bid, Says Vote May Be Rigged

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has officially made his bid to run for reelection in October while intensifying baseless claims of voter fraud.

The nomination comes as the president made continuous attacks on the reliability of the nation's electronic voting system. He did not directly talk about the matter on Sunday, instead, he focused on God, guns, family, his rivalry, and the armed forces. "The army is on our side," he told his supporters. "It's an army that doesn't accept corruption, doesn't accept fraud. This is an army that wants transparency."

"We don't need another ideology that hasn't worked anywhere else in the world. We need to improve what we have," Bolsonaro said as the Liberal Party formally approved Bolsonaro's candidacy, which took place in a Rio de Janeiro stadium, attended by ministers, former ministers, family and other allies. "Our life wasn't easy, but one thing comforts me isn't seeing a communist sitting in that chair of mine." The Liberal Party's formal approval of Bolsonaro's candidacy nths to close a double-digit gap to secure victory.

Bolsonaro has been campaigning for several months to gather public support and remind voters why they should not back his long-standing rival, leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The area was packed with people eager to enter the stadium. All supporters were dressed in the green-and-yellow national colors. Several believers of the president told the Associated Press that if Bolsonaro failed to win a second term, Brazil would follow the catastrophic lead of Venezuela. Alexandre Carlos, 52, said he came to support Bolsonaro's quest to make Brazil better, and commended the president for not wavering in his first term. "It's good versus evil and we're in favor of the good," Carlos said. "Bolsonaro is the only hope we have now to save the country."

Bolsonaro's approval ratings have recovered only slightly since a decline during the coronavirus pandemic. In 2021, a congressional investigation recommended he and administration officials face criminal indictments for actions and omissions related to the world's second-highest death toll from the disease.

In the June survey by pollster Datafolha, results showed that more than half of respondents would not vote for him under any circumstance. While 47% of respondents said they planned to vote for da Silva, 28% were in favor of Bolsonaro in the poll that had a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points. Political analysts expect the presidential race to gear up in the coming months.