Lula is wrong to praise electronic voting machines in “all the elections” he contested

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) made several mistakes when extolling the Brazilian electoral system this Monday afternoon (8) during the ceremony commemorating the one year anniversary of the acts of January 8, 2023, in Brasília. He stated that all the elections he contested were held using electronic voting machines, which does not match reality.

In addition to mentioning this during the ceremony, Lula reiterated his speech on social media later in the afternoon, also making mistakes about his own political career. The first election she contested took place in 1982.

“I have been contesting elections in this country since 1989. There was no one who contested as many elections as me. I lost the first three presidential elections I participated in. I was elected in three others. Everything with electronic voting machines. It is proof that the Brazilian electoral system works. You lose and you win. And, to those who doubt this instrument of democracy, they should resign from their positions”, he wrote on a social network (see in full).

Lula’s main error occurred when he mentioned that he contested all presidential elections using electronic voting machines. In fact, he started running for president in 1989, but the equipment was initially used in 1996 in 57 Brazilian cities.

The universal use of electronic voting machines occurred in the country only in 2000, in municipal elections. Lula’s first victory with the equipment occurred two years later, when he assumed his first presidential term.

Previously, Lula ran for mayor of São Paulo in 1982, losing to Franco Montoro (former PMDB, current MDB). Four years later, he won the race for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies and became a constituent in the drafting of the 1988 Constitution.

The first presidential election he contested took place in 1989, when he lost to Fernando Collor (former PRN), and then in 1994 losing to Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB). In the following election, in 1998, he lost again to the toucan in an election with electronic voting in cities with more than 40 thousand inhabitants.