Bolsonaro breaks silence, says will follow Brazil’s constitution

Briefly assertion, far-right chief avoids conceding election to Lula da Silva however his staff says transition to start.

Bolsonaro
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro maintained practically two days of public silence after shedding Sunday's election to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva [Eraldo Peres/AP Photo]

Jair Bolsonaro has stated he'll respect Brazil’s structure after his election defeat to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, breaking practically two days of public silence that fuelled issues the far-right chief was planning to reject the outcomes.

In a short assertion to reporters on the presidential palace in Brasilia on Tuesday afternoon, Bolsonaro didn't reference his loss in Sunday’s run-off or concede defeat to Lula, however he thanked his supporters for his or her backing.

“I've at all times been labelled undemocratic, and in contrast to my accusers, I've at all times revered the framework of the Structure,” he stated. “As President of the Republic and as a citizen, I'll proceed to respect all of the commandments of our Structure.”

Taking the rostrum after Bolsonaro’s handle, his chief of workers, Ciro Nogueira, stated the president had “authorised” a transition course of to Lula’s authorities.

Bolsonaro was narrowly defeated on Sunday, garnering 49.1 % of the vote to Lula’s 50.9 % and changing into the primary sitting president to lose a re-election bid in Brazil’s post-dictatorship period.

For months, he had falsely claimed the nation’s digital voting system was susceptible to fraud – an allegation rejected by judicial specialists, however which raised fears the previous military captain could possibly be making ready to contest the end result.

Lots of Bolsonaro’s key political allies had already publicly acknowledged Lula’s victory, placing stress on him to do the identical.

Some, together with Nogueira, have begun to ascertain contact with the Lula camp to debate a transition whereas others, together with the speaker of the decrease home of the Nationwide Congress, had publicly stated the Bolsonaro authorities ought to respect the election consequence.

Reporting from Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday, Al Jazeera’s Monica Yanakiew stated “it was a really, very lengthy wait and a really transient assertion” from Bolsonaro, “however he used the assertion to undertaking himself because the chief of the conservative proper in Brazil”.

Lula had criticised Bolsonaro for not instantly conceding defeat or calling him after the election outcomes have been introduced on Sunday night. “Anyplace else on this planet, the defeated president would have referred to as me to recognise his defeat,” he stated in his victory speech in Sao Paulo.

Highway blockades

Whereas Bolsonaro had remained silent – each in public statements and on social media – a lot of his supporters erected highway blockades in anger about his defeat.

Brazilian truckers, a key Bolsonaro constituency, have used burning tyres and automobiles to dam key routes throughout the nation, together with outdoors the worldwide airport in Sao Paulo, forcing a number of flight cancellations.

Protesters sporting the yellow and inexperienced of the Brazilian flag, which the outgoing president has adopted as his personal, shouted slogans and hung banners emblazoned with Bolsonaro’s picture.

bolsonaro protest blockade
Supporters of Bolsonaro, primarily truck drivers, block a freeway in Curitiba, in Parana state, November 1, 2022 [Rodolfo Buhrer/Reuters]

“We won't settle for shedding what we have now gained. We wish what's written on our flag, ‘order and progress’. We won't settle for the scenario as it's,” Antoniel Almeida, 45, informed the AFP information company at a protest in Barra Mansa, in Rio de Janeiro state.

Throughout his transient speech, Bolsonaro described the protests because the fruit of “indignation and a way of injustice” over the vote. He stated the demonstrators ought to keep away from destroying property or “impeding the proper to come back and go”.

Brazil’s Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday ordered the Federal Freeway Police to take “all measures” to clear the blockades, warning that it could levy fines towards the drive’s director normal if he fails to behave.

The chief director of the freeway police, Marco Antonio Territo de Barros, informed reporters there have been 267 highway blockages in place and that 306 had already been dispersed since Sunday.

“It’s a posh operation, involving greater than 75,000 kilometres of federal highways,” he stated.

Al Jazeera’s Yanakiew stated Brazilians have grown more and more upset over the blockades.

“On a regular basis life is being disrupted and there’s completely nothing to realize as a result of you'll be able to’t simply overturn an election consequence by stopping the nation with vans,” she reported earlier within the day. “Individuals are saying it’s time to simply settle for the defeat.”

In the meantime, Lula has leaped into motion to deal with a protracted checklist of priorities, together with strengthening state businesses tasked with defending the atmosphere and Indigenous territories in Brazil, in addition to uniting a deeply polarised nation.

The top of Lula’s Employees Get together, Gleisi Hoffmann, stated on Tuesday that Brazil’s Vice President-elect Geraldo Alckmin will coordinate the transition to the subsequent authorities, which is predicted to take workplace on January 1. That course of is aiming to start out on Thursday, Hoffman stated.

She additionally stated she's going to converse once more in regards to the transition with Nogueira, Bolsonaro’s chief of workers.

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