博索纳罗阵营在败选后要求宣布巴西总统决选无效，但选举法院、最高法和国会均已承认卢拉连任，翻盘希望渺茫

Flávio Bolsonaro called for the annulment of Brazil’s presidential runoff after losing the election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, an improbable bid to overturn the result that echoes his father’s response to defeat four years ago.

Hours after Lula’s surprise comeback was confirmed by electoral authorities, Bolsonaro accused the Supreme Court of changing the rules mid-game when it mandated a last-minute extension of voting hours on Sunday.

Bolsonaro painted the decision as an act of political meddling from Justice Cristiano Zanin, who’d ordered polling places to remain open for two extra hours following a complaint from Lula’s campaign about problems with public transit in key states. But Bolsonaro’s campaign had also asked the electoral court to extend voting hours in certain states affected by inclement weather.

“It is impossible to recognize the election outcome given the circumstances in which all of this took place,” Bolsonaro, the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, said from Brasilia. “We will pursue legal action and seek to have the election annulled.”

Zanin is a Lula appointee who previously worked as the president’s personal attorney, and Bolsonaro said he “will not accept having the rules of the game changed once again by Lula’s allies on the Supreme Court.”

The request risks further mayhem in an already-tense election between ideological adversaries. Bolsonaro’s father refused to accept his narrow 2022 defeat to Lula and was later convicted of plotting a coup after supporters stormed government buildings in a bid to overturn the result.

Bolsonaro is likely to file the annulment request with the country’s electoral court, but odds are stacked against him: Both the electoral authority and the Supreme Court have already accepted the result, as have leaders of both chambers of Congress.

Brazil’s election, a typically routine affair known for the speed and reliability of its electronic voting system, descended into chaos on Sunday afternoon, when Lula’s and Bolsonaro’s campaigns requested additional voting time.

Lula’s argued that bus shortages in states like Bahia, a key northeastern stronghold for the leftist, and Sao Paulo, the nation’s most populous electoral college, had kept voters from getting to polling places.

Minutes after polls were set to close at 5 p.m. local time, Zanin ordered polling places to remain open for another two hours, but the decision, he later clarified, only impacted polls that were still open. Many were already closed.

Read More: Tensions Flare in Chaotic Brazil Election After Voting Extended

After the result was declared, the head of Brazil’s electoral court, Kassio Nunes Marques, said he had called both candidates and congratulated them. He confirmed Lula’s re-election for a term beginning Jan. 5, 2027.

Nunes Marques, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by Jair Bolsonaro, said the last-minute request to extend voting had affected the vote-counting process, but not the final result. He said the electoral court had managed to overcome the difficulties and that there had been no external interference.

Nunes Marques, who’d appeared to sit on the request for additional voting time earlier in the day, denied that he had delayed a review of the petition, saying it needed proper consideration.

The transportation shortfalls that prompted Lula’s request for additional voting time will be monitored and investigated, he said.