Brazil’s Ministry of Defense has audited the election being contested by millions of protestors, declaring that fraud cannot be ruled out and that more investigation is required.
“The Ministry of Defense clarifies that the accurate work of the team of military technicians in the supervision of the electronic voting system, although it has not pointed out, also did not exclude the possibility of fraud or inconsistency in electronic voting machines and the electoral process of 2022,” the department said.
The Ministry of Defense found it troubling it wasn’t given sufficient information to conduct the audit. Supreme Court judges did not hand over a source code associated with the electoral machines.
“There were restrictions on the adequate access of technicians to source code and software libraries developed by third parties, making it impossible to fully understand the execution of the code, which covers more than 17 million programming lines,” the minister said.
Additionally, the department said the ballot box functionality tests “were not sufficient to rule out the possibility of the influence of any malicious code capable of altering the functioning of the voting system.”
The ministry concluded that an investigation is required, causing further evidence for suspicion for those who believe fraud took place.
Millions of Brazilians have taken to the streets to protest what they believe is an illegitimate election.
President-elect Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, 76, reportedly won in a tight race last week.
Da Silva received just over 60 million votes, the most in the country’s history. However, his victory was narrow; he won 50.90% of the vote compared to Bolsonaro’s 49.10%.
Da Silva is a socialist who was sentenced to 12 years of jail for corruption. Journalist Matthew Tyrmand reports that Da Silva didn’t even campaign for the election and was let out of prison early solely for his election bid.
Immediately following the election, Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered agents to raid homes and freeze bank accounts of businessmen who indicated support for a coup in leaked private messages.
Judge Moraes, who oversaw the election results, met with Da Silva on Wednesday to say he wants to regulate digital platforms to combat disinformation.
Under tweets suggesting that election fraud occurred, Twitter warns that the election was fair.
Another viral video shows Supreme Court Justice Luis Roberto saying, “We do not win elections. We take them!”
