Bolsonaro says he will be arrested, killed or declared the winner

BRAZIL, Aug 28 (Reuters) – Brazilian far-right President Jair Bolsonaro said on Saturday he sees three alternatives for his future: winning the 2022 presidential election, death or imprisonment.

“I have three alternatives for my future: to be arrested, murdered, or victorious,” he said in statements at a meeting of evangelical leaders. Bolsonaro later added that the first option is beyond doubt. “No man on Earth will threaten me.”

Bolsonaro’s statements come when he has been questioning Brazil’s electronic voting system and threatening not to accept the results of next year’s presidential election. He has called for the adoption of printed receipts and said e-ballots are vulnerable to fraud.

Bolsonaro tracks former left-wing president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva in most polls.

In the meeting with evangelical leaders, Bolsonaro again criticized Brazil’s electoral tribunal. “We have a president who neither wants nor causes a breakup, but everything has a limit to life. I can’t continue to live with that,” he said.

The head of Brazil’s electoral tribunal, the TSE, said on Wednesday that there was no problem with the electronic voting system, and considered the debate over the adoption of printed votes “a waste”. Read more

Bolsonaro also invited evangelical leaders to run in the national marches scheduled for Sept. 7 to support him. Brazil’s huge evangelical voting bloc was crucial to Bolsonaro’s electoral victory in 2018.

Report by Marcela Ayres; writing by Carolina Mandl; Edited by Leslie Adler

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