Brazil Elections: Bolsonaro Changed His Mind, Says Would Accept Defeat

Brazilian far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro has changed his mind and will accept the result of October’s elections even if the leftist Workers Party (PT) wins, his running mate said Monday.

RELATED:

Brazil: New Poll Confirms Rising Support for Haddad, Likely Loss for Bolsonaro in Second Round

"He has changed that view. If he is defeated, he loses," retired General Hamilton Mourão told reporters at the Brasilia airport.

Bolsonaro, a former army officer who has expressed admiration for Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship, said Friday that he would not accept defeat. 

“I cannot speak for the Armed Forces commanders, but from the support I see in the streets, I will not accept an election result that is not my own victory,” Bolsonaro said Friday in an interview with Band TV, from a hospital room where he is recovering from a stabbing three weeks ago.

Opinion polls show him winning the most votes in the first round of voting on Oct. 7, but utimately losing to the PT’s Fernando Haddad in a probable run-off three weeks later.

New polls by the MDA institute revealed that Ciro Gomes of the Democratic Labor Party has more chances of winning the second round than Bolsonaro.

The far-right candidate previously accused PT of planning to rig the elections which seemed to presage to Brazilian a new military coup.

Bolsonaro said "the armed forces wouldn't take the initiative. If the first mistake came from the PT, then it could happen, yes, a participation of the armed forces. But with the PT making the first mistake."

Mourão said Brazil’s military would “logically” accept a PT victory, even if that meant, in his view, a return to incompetent government and corruption. “The armed forces are sitting quiet, following their commanders,” the general said.

Recently, tens of thousands of Brazilian women took to the streets to protest against the misogynist and divisive comments and policies of right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro which has resulted in declining support for him.