Brazil court asks military to share report on voting machines

Brazil's federal audit court (TCU) has asked the Defence Ministry to provide its report on Brazil's electronic voting machines used during this month's election, which President Jair Bolsonaro has attacked as vulnerable to fraud.

The TCU sought a copy of the report in a request seen by the Reuters news agency on Tuesday and said that after a military inspection of the voting machines on election day, "state security will be strengthened with the disclosure of such information."

The TCU press office confirmed it had made the request. Brazilian media reported the Defence Ministry has refused to disclose the findings of its review or comment on its status.

Newspaper O Globo reported on Tuesday that the ministry had told Bolsonaro that the inspection of the results from 385 machines had found nothing irregular, and the president had not authorised public disclosure of their findings.

O Globo's report, in a column, was based on the accounts of three unnamed generals, one of whom said Bolsonaro had asked the military to look further for irregularities.

Bolsonaro told reporters he had not received the document and called the media reports "an invention."

October 30 run-off

The far-right populist president has criticised the electronic voting machines and the Supreme Court justices that run the national electoral authority for opposing a return to paper ballots.

There has never been fraud detected in the electronic system and Bolsonaro has failed to present new evidence of such a risk.

Bolsonaro has charged that the justices favour his leftist rival, former president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, stirring fears that he could contest the result if he is defeated.

Lula led the first round of the presidential election with 48 percent of the votes to Bolsonaro's 43 percent and the race now goes to an October 30 run-off vote.