• Jair Bolsonaro’s request to have ballots from this year’s presidential election thrown out is denied.
• Chief Justice Alexandre De Moraes believes computerized ballots are “clear, safe, and integral” Lula takes office on Jan. 1.

Jair Bolsonaro’s request to have ballots from this year’s presidential election thrown out was denied by the head of Brazil’s electoral court on Wednesday.

He referred to the outgoing President’s claim that some voting machines had malfunctioned as “ludicrous and illicit” and “ostensibly conspiratorial toward the democratic rule of law.”

All versions of electronic ballots were “fully identifiable in a clear, secure and integral way,” according to the judgement of Chief Justice of the Supreme Electoral Court Alexandre De Moraes.

Additionally, he imposed a 22 million reais ($4.1 million) penalties on Bolsonaro’s right-wing Liberal Party for “poor faith litigation.”

Bolsonaro narrowly lost the run-off election to his leftist opponent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, also known as “Lula,” who will take office on January 1.

Bolsonaro has since refrained from officially admitting defeat, although he has previously stated that he would “continue to obey the commandments of the constitution,” which has led analysts to conclude that he would support the handover of power.

However, Bolsonaro and the head of his Liberal Party claimed in the petition submitted on Tuesday that some polling equipment had malfunctioned and that all votes cast using them should be thrown out.

The complaint stated that eliminating those ballots would give Bolsonaro the victory, citing research done by a firm hired by Bolsonaro’s party.

The same voting machines were reportedly utilized in both the first round of voting and the run-off election, according to election authorities.

Bolsonaro’s party, according to Liberal Party congressman Valdemar Costa Neto, simply requested “verification of the second round since we understand it would be impossible to do so in the first round due to the number of persons [candidates] involved,” he said in a news conference on Wednesday.

The fractured political environment in Brazil, which has been dealing with high inflation, slow development, and rising poverty, contributed to last month’s contentious election.

According to the election authority’s final calculation, Lula da Silva received more than 60 million votes, which broke his own record from 2006 and was a Brazilian record.

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