Brasilia: Flavio Bolsonaro, the presidential candidate of Brazil’s Liberal Party and son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, reportedly left Brazil for the United States Tuesday after failing to meet a Supreme Court deadline to surrender his ordinary and diplomatic passports, which were subsequently cancelled amid a money laundering investigation in which he denies wrongdoing.
Flavio Bolsonaro was defeated by incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Sunday’s presidential runoff and his reported departure from Brazil has sparked heated reactions.
Brazil’s 2026 general election culminated in a presidential runoff on Sunday, following the first round of voting October 4. Neither candidate won outright in the closely contested first round. With all votes in the runoff counted, Lula received 51.79 per cent of the valid votes, compared with 48.21 per cent for Bolsonaro, according to the official tally.
Lula’s victory secures him a fourth term as Brazil’s President, with his inauguration scheduled for January 5, 2027, for a four-year term, Xinhua news agency reported Wednesday.
After Lula’s victory, Bolsonaro, speaking in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia, said it is “impossible” to recognise the results and called for the annulment of the election, alleging unequal treatment of voters following a two-hour extension of voting hours at polling stations affected by public transport disruptions and heavy rain.
Bolsonaro argued that the decision had disadvantaged voters in areas where polling stations were not reopened and that his legal team would challenge the results.
However, the Liberal Party, to which Bolsonaro belongs, formally acknowledged Lula’s victory on Monday. Other right-wing and center-right parties that had supported Bolsonaro during the election, including the Republicans, the Brazilian Democratic Movement and the Progressives, also acknowledged Lula’s victory, making clear that they did not support calls to annul the election results or hold a new election.
Brazilian media reported Monday that Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes had ordered Bolsonaro to surrender his passports to the Federal Police and barred him from leaving the country.
The ruling is part of an investigation involving Bolsonaro and lawyer Willer Tomaz, according to Brazil’s public news agency Agencia Brasil. The probe reportedly involves suspected money laundering and financial links to businesses connected to the sports betting industry.
Additionally, Bolsonaro is under investigation over the financing of a biopic about his father. The probe examines the source of funds for the film’s production.
Bolsonaro confirmed on the same day that he intended to comply with a request to surrender his passports and denied plans to flee the country following a visit to his father, who is under house arrest, serving a 27-year-and-three-month sentence for plotting a coup after his 2022 election defeat and remains under investigation in related cases.
However, he failed to surrender the documents before the deadline expired Tuesday, and the passports were subsequently canceled. Bolsonaro was then reported to have left Brazil for the United States, though his exact route remained unclear.
Meanwhile, US media reported Tuesday, citing a senior State Department official, that the department would issue visas to Bolsonaro and his family, allowing them to enter the United States.
In response to the news, Lula told supporters who gathered outside the Alvorada Palace: “I regret that he left Brazil … And his decision to leave Brazil is shameful.”
Lula also criticised Bolsonaro for failing to comply with the court order to surrender his passports, saying he should have stayed in Brazil to address the allegations against him. Recalling that he had surrendered his own passport when ordered to do so in 2018, Lula said he had chosen to remain in Brazil to prove his innocence.
Bolsonaro’s departure has not been officially confirmed.
Brazilian media reported that there was no record in the country’s immigration control system indicating that he had left Brazil through regular border controls. The Federal Police were investigating whether and how he might have left the country.
Argentina’s migration department reportedly said Wednesday that Bolsonaro and his family boarded a private plane bound for Ecuador late Tuesday, but the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to the statement.
The current location of Bolsonaro and his family remains unclear.
Earlier Monday, US President Donald Trump said Brazil’s presidential election “looked like another rigged election” and that the decision to extend voting hours was “very strange.”
Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin Monday rejected Trump’s claim that Brazil’s presidential election appeared to have been “rigged,” saying there was no evidence to support the allegation.
“First, one does not interfere in the politics of another country. That is a fundamental principle,” Alckmin said. “Brazil, in fact, is an example to the world in terms of electronic voting and legal safeguards. This is how democracy works: you win an election, you lose an election, and it is the people who decide.”
Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court ordered the Federal Police on Tuesday to open an investigation into possible foreign interference in the country’s electoral process.
The decision issued by the court’s Justice Flavio Dino points to signs that algorithms on digital platforms were manipulated to benefit the conservative candidate Bolsonaro.
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