Anthony Boadle, Ricardo Brito

BRASILIA, Reuters – Brazil will receive a record number international observers in October’s election. This is despite a polarized presidential election where President Jair Bolsonaro is questioning the reliability of electronic voting machines.

Bolsonaro’s government reacted negatively to an invitation made by Brazilian electoral authorities last month to the European Union for observers to be sent to Brazil, sinking the proposal.

The formal observers mission will be sent by the Parlasur parliament, the South American trade bloc Mercosur (also known as Parlasur), as well as the Carter Center in the U.S. and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems.

Bolsonaro’s election in 2018 saw the 34-nation Organization of American States send out more observers.

We don’t have a precise estimate of how big the mission is yet. That will be dependent on money, but we plan to expand it,” stated a source in Washington at the hemispheric forums. He requested anonymity so that he could comment on initial discussions. In 2018, we had 40 observers. We want to increase that figure.

Bolsonaro was a far-right populist who supported Donald Trump’s baseless claims of fraud in his 2020 election. Bolsonaro, a far-right populist, raised similar concerns about Brazil’s electronic vote system and called it susceptible to fraud without providing any evidence.

These allegations and Bolsonaro’s critique of Brazilian electoral authorities that defend Brazil’s voting system have raised concern that he may not be able to accept defeat from his leftist opponent Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva who leads opinion polls.

Edson Fachin (head of Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court, TSE), stated last week that “for this reason, we are inviting in an unprecedented manner, all international organisations and specialized centers, to act as observers for our election.”

Fachin said that the TSE is aiming to have more than 100 observers from around the world during this election. Fachin was one of the rotating Supreme Court justices.

Parlasur was invited for 2018 by the TSE as foreign guests to send representatives. Alexandre Andreatta (mission director) said that it would send an official observation team to observe the 2018 election for the first year.

According to him, the mission will have 10-20 members.

A spokesperson for the Carter Center said that the Carter Center has been an innovator in international election observation dating back to the 1980s. It will be sending an exploratory mission into Brazil in June to examine the possibility of monitoring the October vote.

The Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries has confirmed it will send election observers, Fachin said, and the Global Network on Electoral Justice, a pro-democracy organization, has been invited to do so, Fachin said. Fachin said that European electoral authorities were invited to the event as guests.