Brazil’s Bolsonaro challenges election loss, files petition demanding votes be annulled Published duration 9 May 2019 Related Topics Brazil general elections 2019
image copyright Reuters image caption Bolsonaro and his wife Ana Cristina are pictured at the inauguration in January
A Brazilian senator has filed a petition to the Constitutional Court demanding that the electoral defeat of his main rival be annulled.
Senators Fernando Bezerra, who was not in the race for re-election, as well as the vice-presidential candidate and current governor of Paraná, were among those who left the race.
Mr Bezerra has accused Bolsonaro of electoral fraud.
But the petition says both Bezerra and the vice-presidential candidate are ineligible to run in the election because they do not have the correct number of signatures.
The decision could have ramifications for many Brazilian politicians facing challenges to their re-election.
A few days before the elections, Bezerra had filed a complaint with the electoral court in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, asking that he be allowed to run in the election.
Two other candidates also left the race: the former governor of the Amazon state of Rondônia and a businessman whose main business is mining.
All four candidates ran but failed to obtain a significant popular vote share. They were not required to file an appeal of their decision, but they could have.
An estimated 5 million people voted in Sunday’s election.
However, the Constitutional Court ruled last week that Bezerra’s candidacy was invalid because he did not receive the required number of signatures.
image copyright Reuters image caption Bezerra and the vice-presidential candidate are not currently registered to run for election in Brazil
When they were still in the race, the two candidates could not have received more than 2.5 million signatures. By contrast, this will allow the petition to be filed with the Supreme Electoral Court.
“There are only 2,543,000 signatures from people who voted in the last election
