Brazil's President Bolsonaro Calls Supreme Court Justice "Son Of Whore"

JAKARTA - Brazil's far-right president Jair Bolsonaro ignored calls to end his feud with the Supreme Court on Friday, August 6 and called one of his judges a "son of a whore." for his unsubstantiated claims that Brazil's voting system is vulnerable to fraud. Speaking to his supporters in southern Brazil, he insulted Luis Roberto Barroso, the chief justice who also heads the Supreme Electoral Court. Bolsonaro said in a live broadcast shared on his Facebook account. private but later deleted. Copies of the broadcast continued to be re-shared on social media. Judge Barroso, who spoke at a forum about the electoral system after Bolsonaro's comments, said that if his actions caused such discomfort, it was a sign that he was doing his job properly.

Bolsonaro has for weeks railed against electronic devices used in elections in Brazil. He advocates using printed receipts that can be counted if there is an election result in question. Critics say Bolsonaro, like former US President Donald Trump, is sowing doubt if he loses next year's presidential election. He threatened not to accept the results if the system was not changed. With his popularity plummeting after Brazil experienced the world's second-highest COVID-19 death toll, polls show Bolsonaro trailing left-wing former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, though neither of them are significantly officially announced he would be running. Earlier this week the Supreme Court approved an investigation into the president's baseless allegations of voter fraud. On Thursday, in Bolsonaro's worst setback in Congress since taking office in 2019, a lower house committee voted to override a constitutional amendment he had pushed for. adopted a printed ballot. Congressman Arthur Lira said on Friday that he would put the controversial amendment to plenary even if the committee lost. Lira explained the decision said a quick resolution was preferable because political tensions over the issue were hampering the country's legislative agenda. The proposal did not expected to thwart the lower house where constitutional amendments require three-fifths of the vote. Earlier on Friday, Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco criticized Bolsonaro for his attack on the Supreme Court and offered to mediate, saying the president's insults against Barroso were unacceptable. Pacheco said Bolsonaro should respect the election results. next year even if he fails to change the electronic voting system - which the president says is vulnerable to interference. "Any threat, however small, to this democracy will be immediately rejected by the Senate," Pacheco said in a GloboNews television interview. advocating a "democratic pullout" or adjournment of next year's election would be seen as "the enemy of the nation." "I think the majority in Congress today wants to keep the electronic voting system," he said.