FLAVIO BOLSONARO SAYS JUSTICE BARRED HIM FROM LEAVING BRAZIL

Flavio Bolsonaro said on Monday that a Supreme Court justice had barred him from leaving Brazil after he lost the presidential election to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday. The senator said in an Instagram video that the order required him to hand over his passports. He called it “a clear attempt to intimidate me”. Election figures put Bolsonaro on 48.2% of the vote and incumbent Lula on 51.8%. Bolsonaro has refused to concede defeat.

Bolsonaro said the passport decision stemmed from a statement by his brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, that he would have to leave Brazil if he lost. Eduardo Bolsonaro, a former lawmaker, lives in the United States. “I never said that,” Flavio Bolsonaro said in response to the suggestion that he planned to leave. The senator faces an investigation into alleged corruption and money laundering connected to financing a biopic about his father, jailed former leader Jair Bolsonaro. Flavio Bolsonaro denies wrongdoing.

Bolsonaro said he would seek to annul the election. He argued that extending voting hours on Sunday favoured Lula. Bolsonaro had also requested the extension of voting hours. He promised to lead resistance to Lula’s government and said he would organise the opposition.