Bolsonaro says he will be arrested, killed or declared winner

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro attends the ceremony of National Volunteer Day at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil August 26, 2021. REUTERS/Adriano Machado

REUTERS

Brazilian far-right President Jair Bolsonaro on Saturday said he sees three alternatives for his future: winning the 2022 presidential elections, death or prison.

"I have three alternatives for my future: being arrested, killed or victory," he said, in remarks to a meeting of evangelical leaders. Bolsonaro later added that the first option is out of question. "No man on Earth will threaten me."

Bolsonaro's remarks come as he has been questioning Brazil's electronic voting system and threatened not to accept the results of next year's presidential election. He has been calling for the adoption of printed receipts, saying that electronic ballots are vulnerable to fraud.

Bolsonaro trails former leftist President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva in most polls.

In the meeting with evangelical leaders, Bolsonaro again criticized Brazil's electoral court. "We have a president who neither desires nor provokes a rupture, but everything has a limit in life. I can't continue to live with this," he said.

The head of Brazil's electoral court, the TSE, on Wednesday said there is no problem with the electronic voting system, calling a discussion to adopt printed ballots "a waste of focus." 

Bolsonaro also invited evangelical leaders to show up at the planned Sept. 7 nationwide marches to support him. Brazil's huge evangelical voting bloc was crucial to Bolsonaro's 2018 election victory.

Reporting by Marcela Ayres; writing by Carolina Mandl; Editing by Leslie Adler