Flávio Bolsonaro Challenges NASA to Explain Lula’s 10.3 Million Vote Gain

In a video posted on social media on Thursday evening, the senator dared a mathematician, a statistician, a probability expert or “someone from NASA” who works with quantum calculations to explain the result. He presented no evidence of irregularities.

“Find me a mathematician, a statistics expert, a probability expert, even someone from NASA who works with quantum calculations, who can explain how Lula gained more than 10.3 million votes from one round to the next in just 20 days,” Flávio Bolsonaro said. “There is no way to explain Lula’s vote.”

What Flávio Bolsonaro Claims

He captioned the video “A mathematically impossible election! Come do the math with me,” Brazilian outlets reported (translated). He said Lula’s vote rose by more than 43% in Goiás, 35% in São Paulo and 30% in Santa Catarina.

He also questioned Lula’s gains in Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Roraima and Acre. He did not explain how he calculated the figures.

“Nothing happened during those 20 days that would justify Lula gaining 10.3 million votes while my vote increased by just over 3.5 million,” he said. He added that Lula “lost both debates” in the second round.

What the Official Numbers Show

The 10.3 million figure matches official data. Lula won 53,879,538 votes in the Oct. 4 first round and 64,256,232 in the Oct. 25 runoff, according to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). That is a net gain of 10,376,694.

Flávio Bolsonaro went from 56,104,503 to 59,826,041 votes, a gain of 3,721,538. He led the first round by about 2.2 million votes. Lula won the runoff 51.79% to 48.21%, a margin of about 4.4 million.

Ten eliminated candidates had drawn more than 9.3 million votes in the first round. Turnout also rose by about 2.96 million, and blank and null ballots fell by about 1.8 million.

Together, that freed up roughly 14 million votes for the two finalists, fact-checkers at Estadão Verifica and BBC News Brasil noted. They called the “mathematically impossible” claim unfounded. Because the vote is secret, the data cannot show how individual voters moved.

Earlier Challenges

It is not the first time he has disputed the result. On election night he said he could not recognize it and would seek its annulment. Days later, from the U.S., he declared himself Brazil’s true president-elect.

His party’s leadership and his running mate, Alfredo Gaspar, have recognized the defeat, Brazilian media reported. Our earlier reports cover his departure from Brazil and claims that Trump aides helped him leave.