Bolsonaro lost the race by a narrow margin, taking 49.1 percent of the vote against da Silva’s 50.9 percent. It was the most exciting presidential race since Brazil returned to democracy in 1985.
In Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous state and largest economy, traffic congestion around the international airport has led to dozens of flight cancellations, with videos on social media showing travelers rolling their bags down the highway in the dark as they try to catch their flight. The highways were cleared Tuesday morning, but airport officials said access remained difficult as traffic was still stuck.
Truck drivers and other supporters of Jair Bolsonaro block roads in protest in southern Brazil.Credit:Getty
Protesters set fire to tires at another roadblock in Sao Paulo state. Several protesters were draped in the Brazilian flag, which has been co-opted by the country’s conservative movement for demonstrations. Huge lines of cars twisted along the highway.
In Minas Gerais, a key election battleground, a social media video showed a protester telling a reporter for the news channel O Tempo that the election was “fraudulent” and warning of future protests. “We will not stop until we have a response from our president,” he said. “We want Bolsonaro in 2023 and for years to come.”
In Itaborai, a region of Rio de Janeiro state, an Associated Press reporter saw truck drivers kneel before police officers and refused to evacuate.
Users on social media, including in multiple Telegram and WhatsApp chat groups with names like “Paralysation,” shared demands that the military take to the streets, or that Congress and the Supreme Court be dissolved and the president remain in office.
Supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro block a highway to protest the loss of the second round.Credit:AP
After the election, the electoral authority blocked two dozen Telegram groups defending a military coup and called on their more than 150,000 followers to stage demonstrations, according to the online news site UOL.
Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision allows regular state police to bolster federal highway police, and the governors of the states of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo have ordered them to deploy, news outlets reported. The same thing happened in 2018, when an 11-day strike by truck drivers brought Brazil to a standstill.
However, Bolsonaro has received widespread support from the grassroots, and it was not clear how effective their involvement would be. Da Silva’s Workers’ Party had accused Bolsonaro’s campaign of using law enforcement to create traffic jams and deter people from voting on election day, and video footage shared on social media showed officials stopping buses.
Alexandre de Moraes, chair of the country’s electoral authority, said police checkpoints slowed voters but did not stop them from reaching the polls.
Due to the 2018 shutdown, food prices rose and supermarket shelves were left without products as gas stations ran out of fuel. It caused billions in losses and revealed the enormous power that truck drivers possess, especially when they organize themselves through social media platforms.
Bolsonaro, a politician at the time and months away from winning that year’s presidential election, was an outspoken supporter of the truck drivers, who are now among his constituents. This year, his government curtailed interstate fuel taxes to lower prices and launched a financial aid program for truck drivers just months before the election.
On Tuesday, dozens of journalists from both national and international news channels camped outside the presidential residence in the capital Brasilia, awaiting any sign that Bolsonaro would speak about the elections or the highway blockades.
“Bolsonaro’s strategy here, as far as there is, appears to be strategic ambiguity,” said Robert Muggah, co-founder of Igarapé Institute, a think tank in Rio de Janeiro that focuses on security. “He’s focused on the street, and if chaos ensues, so much the better. There is a real risk that the inaction of the police could ignite the simmering tensions between the militant wings of the far left and far right.”
AP with Reuters
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