According to explosive reporting from Brazilian journalist Malu Gaspar of O Globo, every minister on the TSE was against the idea. The consensus inside the electoral court was clear: voting hours, fixed by law from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Brazil time, should not be extended.
Yet Zanin, acting on a request from Lula’s campaign, issued the order around 5:01 p.m., one minute after polls were supposed to close, trampling the specialized electoral body that is constitutionally responsible for running the election.
Breaking News: Is Brazil turning into a Banana Republic?
“Brazil Supreme Court Justice, Cristiano Zanin, President Lula’s former lawyer who defended him during the Petrobras corruption scandal and whom Lula himself appointed to the Supreme Court, ordered that voting across Brazil be extended by TWO HOURS!!! Zanin is not even a member of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), whose president was appointed by Bolsonaro. The TSE normally handles election issues. His decision forced election authorities to suspend the vote count. The real scandal however, lies in the fact that Zanin had no legal authority to intervene, yet he did so anyway to help his buddy Lula. The order was subsequently restricted to polling stations that had not yet closed, most likely in less developed regions where Lula tends to receive more votes. This is a massive scandal in Brazil and goes to show that the country is nothing more than a banana republic.”
Just two hours before polls were set to close, Lula was having a MELTDOWN on national television, amid concerns that his supporters were being prevented from reaching polling stations and casting their ballots.
It was a stunning, last-minute intervention in one of the most consequential elections in Brazilian history.
The decision immediately generated confusion because electronic voting machines in numerous locations had already been shut down and election officials had begun closing their polling stations.
Ministers described a climate of fury and apprehension, fearing that the loser, would challenge the results and force a “third round” in the courts. “Nobody knows what is going to happen. Everyone fears that whoever loses will question the result,” another minister said.
Conservative Flavio Bolsonaro called for Sunday’s presidential results to be annulled in Brazil.
Flavio Bolsonaro: “What happened today was not something normal. In fact, it was something unacceptable. At 5:01 pm, Justice Zanin makes a decision extending the election hours by 2 hours. This has never happened before in the history of Brazil… A Supreme Court justice, for the first time in history—Lula’s former lawyer—issued a unilateral decree at the request of a former law partner of his, and changed the rules of the game in the middle of the game!… At 5:01 PM, Justice Zanin—who is not part of the Superior Electoral Court—trampling over the specialized electoral court, made a decision extending voting by two hours. This had never happened in the history of Brazil!”
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