Flavio Bolsonaro raises disputed claims about Brazil voting system

Brazilian right-wing presidential hopeful Flavio Bolsonaro raised concerns about the country’s electronic voting system at a private gathering with diplomats on Tuesday night, citing claims about Smartmatic that Brazilian election authorities have denied.

Flavio Bolsonaro alleged that Brazil’s voting machines had links to Smartmatic, a London-headquartered multinational company founded by Venezuelans in the United States. Brazilian election authorities have denied that Brazil’s voting system uses Smartmatic machines or software.

Smartmatic has appeared in conspiracy theories linked to the 2020 US presidential election, despite what the source described as its highly limited use in the United States. US President Donald Trump, an ally of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, last week alleged that Venezuela’s government had developed ways to alter electronic votes. The declassified CIA analysis cited by Trump said Smartmatic and the Venezuelan government could not manipulate election outcomes outside Venezuela.

Flavio Bolsonaro was quoted by local media as saying that many machines used in Brazilian elections came from the same Venezuelan company, apparently referring to Smartmatic. He also said he was not questioning Brazil’s electoral system, but was asking all countries to send as many observers as possible to the elections.

Flavio Bolsonaro is expected to run in the October election against incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Lula, an 80-year-old leftist, defeated Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 election.

Before the 2022 vote, then-president Jair Bolsonaro summoned diplomats to the Alvorada Presidential Palace and made unsubstantiated allegations about security problems with electronic voting machines. Brazil’s highest electoral authority, the TSE, later declared Jair Bolsonaro ineligible for office for eight years for abuse of power and spreading misinformation. He was separately convicted of plotting a coup attempt after his loss to Lula and is currently imprisoned.

Flavio Bolsonaro’s team denied in a statement to AFP that he had questioned the integrity of the voting system. The team said he had only reported “public facts.”

The 45-year-old senator is due to be officially proclaimed as the Liberal Party’s presidential candidate on Saturday at a convention in Sao Paulo. Argentine President Javier Milei is expected to attend.