Bolsonaro silent after Brazil presidential vote loss
Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, center, makes his way to a press conference after losing the presidential runoff election in Curitiba, Brazil, Sunday Jan. 10, 2018. Brazil’s presidential election left all three candidates with the backing of enough voters to avoid a second round, but the far-right candidate with little support won the first round but would need to win a second if he hopes to be elected for more than two four-year terms. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
After a stunning defeat that left Brazil’s far-right candidate in the presidency, Brazil’s leader-elect appeared to be struggling Sunday to recover from the shock of the most unlikely election in recent decades, and the resignation of his vice president.
Brazil’s president-elect Jair Bolsonaro was surrounded by police officers as he arrived for a brief visit to his home state of Sao Paulo and later spoke by phone with President Michel Temer, who has also asked for the election to be canceled.
Thousands of Brazilians took to the streets in the capital following the second-round loss to Fernando Haddad, who campaigned on a platform of restoring constitutional order, reducing crime and improving education and health.
Bolsonaro appeared to have lost the presidency but still had enough votes to avoid a second runoff. He was also projected to win in the second round, but this time with a higher turnout. But the turnout would have been closer to the low-turnout of Haddad’s first round where polls predicted a turnout of about 40 percent.
Both presidential candidates will be sworn in on Jan. 1.
The former army captain-turned-far-right politician also criticized the Supreme Court for siding with Brazil’s top court’s previous ruling that his candidacy must be canceled.
Bolsonaro was forced to make changes to his campaign organization before the election in favor of a single-candidate campaign after weeks of political disagreements