🇧🇷 Brazil’s election ended with Lula winning by 4.4 million votes... and half the country asking HOW?!?!
Going into yesterday, Flávio Bolsonaro was the CLEAR betting favorite at around 80% on Polymarket.
Then, minutes after polls were supposed to close, a Supreme Court justice stepped in and extended voting nationwide by 2 hours, without waiting for the electoral court to rule.
That justice, Cristiano Zanin, used to be Lula’s PERSONAL DEFENSE LAWYER in the Car Wash corruption case, and Lula appointed him to the court. (Which might explain that look of pure devotion in the photo.)
Both campaigns had asked for more time, but the order caused chaos.
Stations that had already closed had to stay shut, machines in parts of Rio couldn’t be restarted, and the vote count was frozen.
When counting resumed, Flávio briefly LED. But the betting markets flipped to Lula about an hour before the official count did.
Bolsonaro is refusing to concede and wants the entire runoff annulled, calling the extension an illegal rule change by a judge tied to his opponent.
When Lula’s former lawyer rewrites the rules mid-vote, the least Brazil deserves is a full investigation.
If it’s all clean, what’s there to fear?
Sources: Latin Times, The Rio Times, The Guardian, Reuters / Writer: Julie