Bolsonaro launches campaign with digs at voting system, main rival
Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro officially launched his presidential re-election campaign on Sunday, attacking the voting system, the judiciary and his main challenger in a bellicose speech in Rio de Janeiro.
In a more than hour-long address at a sports arena, the far-right leader promised he would maintain a temporary social support grant if re-elected, and warned he would "not allow fraud" in the October vote -- a criticism of the electoral system he has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, is flawed.
Earlier this week, the US embassy in Brazil said the country's electoral system was a "model for the world" after Bolsonaro warned in an address to ambassadors that the system's "flaws" engendered "mistrust."
Such attacks in recent months have led analysts to fear that Bolsonaro -- who has been dubbed "Tropical Trump -- may refuse to accept defeat like his former American counterpart, whose supporters stormed the US Capitol after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
Bolsonaro's repeated questioning of the electoral system has prompted the Supreme Court to open an investigation into him.
On Sunday, the president urged his supporters to take to the streets in September -- the one-year anniversary of independence day protests marked by attacks on democratic institutions that Bolsonaro had encouraged.
