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Supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro want an inquiry into Sunday’s election after he disrupted polls and forced the race to a second round, his son said.
Eduardo Bolsonaro has credited a video message from Donald Trump with helping his father get within five points of left-wing leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
And he said Brazilians expect Trump to return to the White House.
But he was especially angry about polls that had given Lula a two-figure lead, which he says has prompted some supporters to vote for other candidates.
“We don’t believe they were wrong by error or science,” he told DailyMail.com.
“They were wrong, because they are trying to influence the election.”
The highly polarized elections will determine whether the country returns a leftist to lead the world’s fourth-largest democracy or keeps the far-right incumbent in office for another four years.
Da Silva came close to an outright majority with 48.4 percent of the vote against Bolsonaro’s 43.2 percent.
President Jair Bolsonaro clouded expectations by narrowly losing to left-wing challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Sunday’s Brazilian election
The president’s son, Eduardo, who is also a member of the Chamber of Deputies, said the result showed pollsters were not only wrong, but were actively trying to influence the outcome.
Eduardo Bolsonaro also praised a video Trump shot on his private plane on Saturday night that he said had a significant impact on the outcome.
But that’s enough to suggest that the right-wing wave he drove to the presidency in 2019 remains a force and makes his supporters believe he can do it. picking up the votes of the eliminated candidates and giving him his way to victory in the October 30 runoff election.
And his son said Trump’s impact showed that the former president remained a tremendous force in international politics.
Trump recorded a video note as his private jet prepared to take off from Michigan after a rally on Saturday night.
“For the people of Brazil, you have a great opportunity to re-elect a wonderful leader, a wonderful man, one of the greatest presidents of any country in the world — President Bolsonaro,” Trump said.
“He’s done an absolutely incredible job with your economy, with your country. He is respected by everyone all over the world.”
Eduardo Bolsonaro said the video went viral after it was posted on his father’s Instagram account.
Bolsonaro visited the Trump White House in March 2019
Bolsonaro handed Trump a Brazilian football shirt during that visit
A year late, Bolsonaro joined Trump and officials from both sides at a working dinner in Mar-a-Lago. Eduardo Bolsonaro can be seen on the left side of the photo
“The video was incredible,” he said, adding that it had received more than 100,000 responses.
“It was by far number one when you talk about foreign aid to President Bolsonaro.”
He rejected claims by Trump’s opponents that the former president’s influence was waning.
“I don’t think so,” he said.
“You have great expectations from Brazilians here that he will become president of the United States again. His status is therefore not that of a regular politician.’
Bolsonaro was a frequent visitor to the Trump White House and Mar-A-Lago, the former president’s Florida home.
Both the Brazilian president and his son are pictured in the former president’s book, “Our Journey Together.”
Bolsonaro has at times followed Trump’s playbook, appealed to his nationalist rhetoric, downplayed concerns about COVID-19 and claimed — without citing evidence — that electronic voting machines are vulnerable to fraud.
He has not contested the result of Sunday’s vote.
But his son said they were collecting signatures to start a congressional investigation.
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva poses on arrival to vote in his Sao Paulo bastion
Supporters of former president and presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva celebrated as the partial results of the Brazilian election were announced
At the same time, supporters of the Brazilian president also celebrated Sunday’s better-than-expected display in Rio de Janeiro
He said the results for other candidates of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party were better than those of the president.
“If you look at the votes for president, oddly enough, you didn’t see the same results for Bolsanaro, meaning there are people voting for our candidates for governor who are voting for Lula for president,” he said.
But he was confident that the second round would have their way, as many local elections had already been concluded.
“It is very common for the local politician, if he is a candidate, to pay for buses to bring their voters,” he said.
“We don’t think they will do this again.
‘At the same time, we think our people will become more enthusiastic.’