Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro alleged without evidence that Brazil’s election was rigged in an interview published Nov. 7, 2026. (Foto: Instagram)
Brazilian Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro said Kassio Nunes Marques, president of the Superior Electoral Court, “doesn’t know what he’s talking about” when he says there was no fraud in Brazil’s elections. Flávio made the remark in an interview with The Washington Post published Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026.
Flávio, who is in the United States after losing the election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, again alleged without providing evidence that the Brazilian vote was rigged. He had made a similar claim in an interview with The New York Times earlier in the week. Asked about Nunes Marques’ recognition of the election result, Flávio said that no one could be completely certain fraud had not occurred.
“I assure you he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Neither I, nor you, nor anyone watching, nor the president of the Superior Electoral Court can say with 100% certainty that there was no fraud,” Flávio told the U.S. newspaper. Nunes Marques was appointed to Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court by former President Jair Bolsonaro, Flávio’s father.
Flávio also said President Donald Trump agreed with him. Trump has avoided making highly emphatic statements about Brazil’s election, but has repeatedly called it fraudulent and at one point described it as a “disgrace.” Flávio said Trump is convinced Brazil is no longer a full democracy. He also compared Trump’s situation with his father’s, saying he went to the United States because, in his view, “the institutions still work” there.
In the interview, Flávio argued that Jair Bolsonaro and Trump had followed similar paths: both claimed widespread fraud in elections they lost, and both were accused of encouraging a violent attempt at insurrection, in addition to facing other criminal accusations. Flávio said only one of them was imprisoned, while the other returned to power.
Flávio declined to explain how he left Brazil after the election. In his earlier interview with The New York Times, he said he would “take to the grave” the details of his final steps in Brazil before traveling to the United States. He left Brazil two days after the election results that returned Lula to office for what the source describes as a fourth term. Flávio is under investigation in multiple inquiries over suspicions of money laundering, foreign-exchange evasion and corruption.
