Lula makes mistakes about the ballot box and candidacies when extolling elections – 01/08/2024 – Power

President Lula (PT) made a series of mistakes regarding the implementation of the electronic ballot box and the elections he ran for when he praised the Brazilian electoral system on social media this Monday (8), in the wake of the one-year anniversary of the coup attacks January 8th.

He stated that he has been contesting elections since 1989, that there was “no one who contested as many elections” as him, and that all the presidential elections in which he participated used electronic voting machines.

The PT member’s first candidacy, however, took place in 1982, when he tried for the Government of São Paulo and lost to Franco Montoro, from the then PMDB, now MDB. Four years later, he ran for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies and won, becoming a constituent.

From 1989 onwards, he started to contest presidential elections, when he lost to Fernando Collor, then in the PRN. In 1994 and 1998 he ran again for Palácio do Planalto, defeated by Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB).

Regarding electronic voting machines, the first dispute in which they were present was in 1996, in 57 cities. Lula only contested elections under this system in 1998, when FHC was seeking re-election — that year, electronic voting was used in cities with more than 40 thousand inhabitants, according to the TSE (Superior Electoral Court).

The electronic voting machine was only universalized in the country in the 2000 municipal elections.

A report from the series “The secrets of 8/1” revealed that the day after the attacks, Lula repeated to ministers, assistants and presidents of other Powers that he had lost elections many times and that he did not understand why those who had been defeated in October did not accept the result.

“He said: I was defeated, I understood that I was defeated and I moved on to other disputes. He said that a lot. We won. And why don’t those who were defeated understand this and don’t wait for time to pass and then compete?” Senator Veneziano Vital do Rêgo (MDB-PB), who was acting president of the Senate in the absence of Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG).

In a speech this Monday, Lula made reference to the children of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) when commenting on the subject: “People who doubt the elections and the legality of the Brazilian ballot box, why don’t they ask their party to resign all deputies and senators who were elected? His three sons who were elected, why don’t they resign in protest against the fraudulent ballot box?”, he asked.