Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party (PL) was unable to register today his candidacy for President of Brazil for the October general elections, after appearing affiliated with the Missão party. The deadline for registering candidacies ends next Saturday, and the PL has already requested Flávio Bolsonaro’s disaffiliation from Missão before the Electoral Court.
The case is being investigated by the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which refuted allegations from the PL that there had been a cyberattack on the Electoral Court’s systems. Electoral Court data shows that Flávio was affiliated with Missão on Wednesday, which automatically canceled his affiliation with the Liberal Party on the same date.
In a statement, the TSE informed that Flávio’s affiliation “was not the result of a ‘hacking’ of the party affiliation system, but rather the improper use of the tool by someone who possessed the credentials” of the Missão party to carry out affiliations.
Flávio Bolsonaro posted a video on social media: “The system will try everything to stop me, but it will not succeed, because God is in control,” he said, adding that he was the victim of a fraudulent affiliation.
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The Missão party, for its part, belonging to presidential candidate Renan Santos, stated that it “was the victim of a fraudulent affiliation” and that they had informed the PL about the occurrence since August 2, but received no response from Flávio Bolsonaro’s team.
“Flávio’s office was informed of this affiliation attempt since the 2nd of this month. It appears in our system that the sent emails were opened, but were not answered,” Missão reported.
“It is not in the party’s interest to welcome into its ranks a parliamentarian who, in addition to ideological misalignment, is featured in accusations and suspicions of involvement in corruption schemes,” it concluded.
Renan Santos, in turn, wrote on social media that Missão has proof that someone using “Flávio’s email pressed the affiliation confirmation button and even pressed the button” to access the activism app. The Liberal Party formalized its support for Flávio Bolsonaro on July 25 during its party convention, and all that remained was to officially register the Bolsonarista politician with the TSE.
