Brazil’s Bolsonaro ‘not afraid to lose’ election, does not seek a coup

RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro on Monday denied that he has any intention of finishing up a coup if he loses October’s election, including that he rejects a constitutional measure seen as an effort to guard him from crime accusations.

Efforts by Bolsonaro to show an Independence Day navy parade on Sept. 7 right into a political occasion, lower than a month earlier than the presidential election, has raised considerations he might use the navy to compensate for his sagging reputation.

“I am not afraid of shedding the election. I am not apprehensive about it,” Bolsonaro stated in an interview on the Circulate Podcast. “If I wished to tug off a coup I would not say something.”

Bolsonaro is working second in polls forward of the election, trailing former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

In the identical interview, the president raised suspicions towards the nation’s voting system, echoing an argument he has typically repeated.

“What we would like is transparency, as a result of my popularity out there may be of a coup plotter, of not wanting to just accept the results of the elections,” he stated.

Requested about latest information that allies of his had been in search of a invoice that might amend the structure to grant ex-presidents a lifetime senator place, guaranteeing them congressional immunity, Bolsonaro stated he had little interest in the proposal.

“They are going to say that I am asking for a reprieve … I do not need that immunity.”

(Reporting by Pedro Fonseca; Enhancing by Michael Perry)