BRASILIA - Ex-president Jair Bolsonaro faced an eight-year ban on running for office as Brazil's top electoral court began trying the far-right leader Thursday over his unproven allegations against the voting system during last year's elections.
Prosecutor Paulo Gonet Branco said Bolsonaro's speech to ambassadors "was aimed at giving the false impression the voting process is obscure, rigged to manipulate the results and award a fraudulent victory to adversary." Smiling and waving, he was welcomed at the airport by a boisterous crowd of dozens of cheering supporters, many clad in the yellow and green of Brazil's flag, which Bolsonaro has adopted as a symbol."There was no criticism or attack on the electoral system" at the meeting, he said.
Bolsonaro spent nearly an hour making his case at the meeting, armed with a PowerPoint presentation but no hard evidence to back his claim that the electronic voting machines Brazil has used since 1996 compromised the "transparency" of the elections.