Thousands of protesters demand army support to block Lula taking power

RIO DE JANEIRO: Thousands of Brazilians gathered outside Army barracks in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and other cities on Tuesday demanding the military intervene to prevent leftist president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva taking power next year.

“We want a better Brazil. We don’t want Lula to take charge on Jan 1, we don’t want a communist country,” bank employee Lais Nunes, 30, told AFP in Rio.

Protesters draped in green and gold waved Brazilian flags and sung the national anthem on what was a bank holiday.

“There is various information that there was electoral fraud ... we can’t accept that,” added police officer Leandro de Oliveira, 38, who claimed the national electoral tribunal was responsible for the supposed fraud.

Supporters of outgoing farright President Jair Bolsonaro have alleged fraud surrounding the electronic voting system that has been used since 1996.

Bolsonaro himself did likewise repeatedly, without providing any supporting evidence.

Brazil’s defence ministry has, however, produced a report dismissing alleged inconsistencies in the electronic results, while international observers also validated the election result.

Lula, who was also president from 2003-10 and left with skyhigh approval ratings, won the Oct 30 run-off with just under 51 percent of the vote compared to Bolsonaro’s 49 per cent.

In the capital Brasilia, thousands more gathered at the army’s headquarters with some holding up banners such as ‘S.O.S Armed Forces’ and ‘Audit at the polls’.

Security was stepped up in the capital and police restricted access to the area around the presidential palace, parliament and supreme court.

Similar protests took place straight after the second round election last month.

Since then, many people set up a camp outside the army headquarters in Sao Paulo, where there were also protests on Tuesday, as well as in Belo Horizonte.

Apart from a brief speech two days after his defeat, Bolsonaro has remained tight-lipped and a recluse, with his official diary left empty.

— AFP photo Supporters of Bolsonaro take part in a demonstration against the results of the runoff election, in front of the Army headquarters in Brasilia.