Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro — who sometimes has embraced the label “Trump of the Tropics” — said Sunday he’ll wait a little longer before recognizing the U.S. election victory of Joe Biden.
Speaking to reporters while casting a ballot in municipal races, he also echoed President Donald Trump’s allegations of irregularities in the U.S. vote.
“I have my sources of information that there really was a lot of fraud there,” he said. “Nobody talks about that. If it was enough to define (victory) for one or the other, I don’t know.”
Asked if he would recognize Biden’s victory, he said, “I am holding back a little more.”
He also expressed doubts about Brazil’s current electronic voting system, which he has suggested is vulnerable to fraud. He has urged the country to go back to a paper ballot system for the 2022 presidential election.
The conservative Brazilian leader has appealed to the same sort of right-wing populist base in Brazil that Trump has courted in the United States, and has welcomed comparisons to the U.S. president.
Like Trump, he has embraced unproven treatements for COVID-19 and has campaigned to ease restrictions meant to combat it, arguing the economic loss is more damaging than the illness itself.
