Former FAB chief says he warned Bolsonaro about the non-existence of ballot box fraud

Former Brazilian Air Force (FAB) commander Carlos Almeida Baptista Júnior stated in testimony to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) this Wednesday (21) that he informed then-president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) of the lack of evidence that the electronic voting machines had flaws.

The military man is one of the witnesses in the trial in which Bolsonaro is accused of attempted coup d'état .

According to Baptista Júnior, Colonel Marcelo Câmara, then an advisor to Bolsonaro, sought out Colonel Wagner Oliveira da Silva, who was part of the Electronic Voting System Oversight Committee, to discuss findings on fraud in electronic voting machines.

The collegiate body, established by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to increase transparency and security at all stages of the elections, included the Armed Forces.

Baptista Júnior stated that, after this episode, he directly asked the then Defense Minister, Paulo Sergio Oliveira, to warn Bolsonaro that his aide should not approach Silva to discuss allegations of fraud in the polls.

At the time, he stated that this behavior constituted a breach of the chain of command and that several theories created within the Presidency of the Republic regarding irregularities in the elections had already been rejected by the Armed Forces themselves.

The former Air Force commander said in his testimony that he warned then-President Jair Bolsonaro in November 2022 about flaws in the report produced by the Instituto Voto Legal (IVL), which pointed out fraud in electronic voting machines. That document presented to the military man at the meeting was used as the basis for the PL's request to annul the votes.

“I said: President, this report is very poorly written. It contains errors in the identification of the ballot boxes,” he said in testimony to the Supreme Court, confirming what he had already told the Federal Police (PF) during the investigations into the attempted coup.

“I commented (on the non-existence of fraud at the polls) after the second round, in a meeting we had on November 9, and then in several meetings with the Minister of Defense and, then, with more emphasis on the 14th, when he presented me with the report from the Instituto Voto Legal,” he said.

After the alert, Bolsonaro called the president of IVL, Carlos Rocha, and put him on the line with Baptista Júnior, who explained the technical errors found in the report and reinforced the opinion that there were no flaws in the ballot boxes that compromised the integrity of the election results.

Baptista Júnior is a witness in the criminal action summoned by the Attorney General's Office (PGR) and the defenses of defendants Jair Bolsonaro, Almir Garnier (former Navy commander) and Paulo Sergio Oliveira.