Brazil military finds no fraud in election, but refuses to rule it out
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – A new report on the October 1, 2018 election of Brazil’s far-right Jair Bolsonaro as president, commissioned by the U.S. State Department and released on Monday, said it found no evidence of fraud in the vote.
The report, however, found that the integrity of the vote was undermined by irregularities that the United States and Brazil had pledged to investigate.
The report, prepared by the Inter-American Justice Mission, a network of international law enforcement agencies, said more than 6,000 “irregularities” appeared in the vote in four out of the five states that the government said were valid – far more than an expected 8,000 irregularities.
Brazil’s chief electoral officer said the report had found no “irregularities” and said the vote was “perfect”. The report said Brazil should ensure that all legal actions were taken against those responsible.
Despite the report, Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it expected the new electoral law approved by the parliament to be implemented.
A U.S. State Department review in May found that the vote had been tampered with to benefit Bolsonaro, who was the only candidate to win a majority in the first round of the election.
The first round was marred by irregularities such as a “miserable” voter turnout, incomplete lists and ballots which voters handed in early in some cases. Bolsonaro’s initial lead was reduced by the end of the campaign but ultimately went to a second round run-off on October 28.
Brazil’s electoral court will review the results and decide on electoral reform on March 2, after which the election would revert to a second round of voting.
The Inter-American Justice Mission, based in Washington, said it had “identified a pattern of electoral irregularities”. It said the report examined 4,739 irregularities in 15,834 ballots from 10 state and federal Brazilian electoral processes, totaling some 4.6 million ballots.
“The agency’s report, though incomplete, is undoubtedly the most extensive and most detailed analysis of the electoral systems, results and processes in Brazil that we know to date,” it said in a statement.
“The
