Bolsonaro to skip inauguration of new chief electoral justices

In a letter to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the president’s office said that Jair Bolsonaro will not attend the inauguration of Supreme Court Justices Edson Fachin and Alexandre de Moraes as the new heads of Brazil’s electoral justice system. The former will be the court’s presiding justice until August, when Alexandre de Moraes will take over to oversee the October election.

The no-show is the latest in a series of spats between electoral courts and the president. In recent months, the TSE has taken upon itself the task of being a democratic guardrail against Mr. Bolsonaro’s continuous attempts to discredit Brazil’s 100-percent electronic voting system.

Last week, Luís Roberto Barroso — the outgoing chief electoral justice — called the president’s action’s a “poor man’s version” of Donald Trump’s Stop the Steal rallies.

With less than eight months to go until Brazilians go to the polls to vote for president, governors, and lawmakers (federal and state), the courts prepare for what Justice Fachin calls “the biggest test democratic institutions have ever endured.”

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