With my final update last night on Brazil's presidential run-off between incumbent President Lula da Silva and challenger Flavio Bolsonaro, it was apparent to everyone but the fellow doing a victory dance in the endzone that some serious hanky-panky election malarkey had just been boldly pulled off, even though they knew the whole world was watching.

To recap: Brazilian polling stations are supposed to close at 5 p.m. sharp. A last-minute extension from a Supreme Court justice - who once happened to be the president's personal attorney - extended voting for two additional hours. This word arrived too late for many areas considered Bolsonaro strongholds. Their election officials were caught by surprise, had closed the polls and shut down the machines as prescribed, and sealed the boxes holding the ballots. 

There were no do-overs or restarts possible.

Strangely enough, as Lula-friendly districts seemed to be lagging in closing up shop to begin with, they weren't bothered by the short notice on the extended hours and kept the doors open for all comers. Unsurprisingly, Lula votes soared.

By 9 our time last night, mainstream media were crowing about 'Lula's amazing come-from-behind win!'

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Strangely enough, the New York Times live blog was the only one to rain on Lula's parade in a brief note that it might not be all sunshine and roses for the gnomish communist:

...From the NY Times live blog of the election:

Several electoral lawyers say today’s vote could be annulled due to confusion over the late decision to extend voting hours. All four lawyers interviewed call the situation unprecedented. “This is an extremely serious, critical situation,” said Priscilla Sodré Pereira, an electoral lawyer. Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin decided, minutes before polls closed, to extend all polling stations by two additional hours. By the time of the announcement, some polling centers had already closed, their voting machines had shut down, and they could not reopen. Fernnado Neisser, an electoral law professor at Fundação Getulio Vargas, a Brazilian research institute, said the election could be annulled if the margin is very narrow and it is shown that polling stations stayed open longer in areas that strongly favor one candidate.

And that's where I had to leave it.

It seems that shortly after I did, two things happened. One was expected, given the circumstances: Flavio Bolsonaro rejected the results.

Bolsonaro is demanding the election be annulled due to the fraudulent extension and unfair administration.

This is his official statement at 10:30 PM, his local time.

This does add some more context to the evening's chaos. We had known that those polling places were closed, and voting machines turned off. We had not heard that his party's poll watchers had been removed from 'the secure vault room the minute the decision was made' to extend voting hours.

In the other stunning development at nearly the same moment, the President of the Superior Electoral Court, the sole judicial body responsible for elections in Brazil, issued a stern rebuke and warning to the Supreme Court over its unprecedented and technically illegal interference in the election. He reminded the Supreme Court that the Brazilian Constitution assigns 'exclusive jurisdiction' over elections to his bench, and not the Supreme Court's.

Probably for a reason, huh?

BREAKING NEWS | The president of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court, Judge Kassio Nunes Marques, has just issued a devastating warning:

There was absolutely no rule that allowed extending the voting by two hours. It was an unprecedented order from a Supreme Court magistrate allied with Lula, which ended up benefiting his regions.

The preliminary decision, issued after the polls closed, generated serious difficulties in the electoral process. "There were no regulations that authorized any extension," Nunes Marques stated.

And he said it with historic clarity:

"Never, in the entire history of the TSE, has there been an extension."

He also warned that it was materially impossible, in just a few hours, to guarantee that a judicial decision of that magnitude would not cause side effects—especially technological ones—capable of significantly altering the vote count.

And he concluded with a forceful reminder to the Supreme Court: the Constitution assigns exclusive jurisdiction to the Electoral Court to direct the electoral process. Not to the STF.

So this is not going to be the end of this from the battle of the courts alone.

The vote tallies are baffling in their miracle math.

And there was one of those rare, only-swings-one-way 'bump in the night' chart vote swaps that gives us all nightmares.

...The official closing time was 17:00 (Brasília time). At the last minute, Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Cristiano Zanin—apparently without consulting the competent authority, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE)—ordered the voting to be extended by two hours nationwide, until 19:00, in response to Lula's request, which denounced public transportation issues (bus reductions) in several cities and states that were hindering voters' access to the polls.

The extension order arrived after closing and counting had already begun in many polling stations / electoral districts. Subsequently, Zanin clarified that the extension applied only to polling stations / electoral precincts where the electronic ballot boxes had not yet been closed. In many places (for example, in the Federal District and several capitals), the ballot boxes had already been closed and could not be technically reactivated.⁠

In summary: the two-hour extension was applied only to polling stations / electoral districts whose electronic ballot boxes were still open, but not to those that had already closed. This caused great confusion and was criticized by the TSE president himself, Kassio Nunes Marques, due to the technical and operational difficulties it created. There are no precedents for this type of extension in recent Brazilian presidential elections.

Simulation if the 19:00h jump had not existed and assuming that the rest of the count remains the same:

This morning's reactions are much as you'd expect. 

Anyone who'd hoped for the possible flowering of the Brazilian economy has a bad case of dashed expectations.

The global socialist/commie Borg community were beside themselves with glee. Check out that line I highlighted from the Borg Empress's 'Congratulations, my Lula!' Xweet if you need a quick blood chill this morning.

...Together we will keep working closely for free and open trade. 

A rules-based global order. 

And strong ambitions for our climate.

Lula wasn't wasting any time, either.

And now a Brazilian congressTRANSwoman is 'requesting' the seizure of Flavio Bolsonaro's passport so 'THIS CRIMINAL can't flee to the United States...to join his brother.'

URGENT: I just requested the seizure of Flávio Bolsonaro's passport. The next step for this criminal is to try to flee Brazil to avoid facing the numerous inquiries against him. He needs to be arrested soon. We cannot allow him to join his brother in the US to plot against national sovereignty!

Seriously. These are Lula's minions.

What's even more horrifying is that they should look very familiar.

I'll update as we know more.

VOTE

Beege ADDS: Okay, okay, okay. This was just so bad, I had to share it with you and make you all madder.

This is The Times UK this morning, slobbering over Lula. It's enough to make you puke.

...The child of illiterate parents who rose to become president of Brazil four times, and managed to hold onto power in an era when the global zeitgeist is mercilessly ousting incumbents.⁠⁠

But there is a catch. Putting aside Flavio Bolsonaro’s attempt to annul last night’s result. Lula is about to begin his fourth term with far less power than he has ever previously enjoyed as president.⁠

When, on January 5, he is driven towards the presidential palace in the republic’s ceremonial 1952 Rolls-Royce, he will look like the man who has the country at his fingertips, but that image will be deeply deceptive⁠

Gobsmacking.

Beege UPDATES: Brother Bingley gave me the heads up on this just a few minutes ago - that the Brazilian Supreme Court was demanding Bolsonaro surrender his passport, and no sooner did I have a chance to get to X?

The 18th-century vampire judge had the federal police tell him to bring it on down.

...Flávio Bolsonaro says he was summoned by the Federal Police to surrender his passports by order of Alexandre de Moraes

Commies gonna commie.

He was apparently visiting his father when this happened, and the regime thugs were waiting in the street for him when he went to leave. This video has translation subtitles, too.

..."I went to visit my father... As I was leaving, Lula’s Federal Police were at his front door, and right there in the middle of the street."

"I was served an order to surrender my passports; I am also prohibited from leaving the country..."

"This is a sign that our democracy has failed..."

"I will surrender my passports and defend myself against this travesty, which is a clear attempt to intimidate me. But no one will silence me..."

The baldness of this is breathtaking. Can you imagine the hue and cry were the shoe on the other foot?

Just look at the shrieking over Omar, who could well not even be a citizen, and try to imagine literally stripping the passport from a presidential candidate who just got 60 million votes the night before because, even with the steal, he nearly upset your fiefdom.

You know who can imagine it?

The people who have done so continually and are planning on more should they retake Congress.

This is their dream scenario in action. These are the people they supported when they were in power two years ago and who they cheered for last night.

VOTE