Brazilians protest: Bolsonaro election concerns by marching for democracy

• Brazilians have protested in their thousands amid worries that President Jair Bolsonaro may attempt to retain his position even if he loses the election in October.
• Due to concerns that the far-right leader would not follow the results of the referendum, protesters marched in numerous cities on Thursday in support of democracy.
• Bolsonaro has made numerous attempts to undermine Brazil’s electoral process.

 Brazilians have protested in their thousands amid worries that President Jair Bolsonaro may attempt to retain his position even if he loses the election in October.

Due to concerns that the far-right leader would not follow the results of the referendum, protesters marched in numerous cities on Thursday in support of democracy.

Mr. Bolsonaro has made numerous attempts to undermine Brazil’s electoral process. He asserted that the absence of a paper record in computerised voting machines makes fraud possible.

Mr. Bolsonaro attempted to add printed ballots into the system a year ago, but Congress rejected his plan.

Critics of the president have expressed concerns that if he loses the election, he is planning to follow the lead of former US President Donald Trump and claim massive fraud.

The protests took place on the same day that a million Brazilians signed and read aloud a citizens’ manifesto.

The manifesto, which took its cue from a statement from 1977 criticising the country’s dictatorship at the time, warned that the democracy of the nation was in grave danger.

A petition “in defence of the democratic state of law” was read out in front of the University of So Paulo while large crowds demonstrated in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, and Recife.

Some demonstrators were disguised as electronic voting machines in response to the president’s accusations of fraud, while others waved banners that criticised Mr. Bolsonaro and read, “Respect the vote, respect the people.”

The president, who has been in office since 2019 and is losing ground in the polls, criticised the petition in a tweet, saying that the only document that matters for ensuring democracy is the constitution.

A number of his opposition candidates for reelection have joined the petition, including former president and leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who tweeted: “Our nation used to be respected and independent. We must retrieve it.”

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