BRASILIA (Dispatches) - Brazil’s Federal Police are investigating possible U.S. interference in the country’s presidential election after receiving a complaint from the Attorney General’s Office, the agency’s director general said Sunday as voting got underway nationwide.
“This is an investigation underway, a preliminary procedure. The inquiry has not yet been formally published, but we already have an investigation in progress,” Federal Police chief Andrei Rodrigues told reporters in the capital Brasilia.
Rodrigues said the case had been forwarded to the agency’s Intelligence Directorate for analysis as Federal Police worked to ensure the smooth running of the 2026 elections.
The request from the Attorney General’s Office seeks an investigation into possible foreign interference in Brazil’s electoral process.
It was based on a report by British newspaper The Guardian reporting that U.S. government funds were redirected to networks and organizations in Brazil.
According to the Brazilian government’s filing, the funds were allegedly used to interfere in political debate and “destabilize and attack the institutional framework of Brazil’s judiciary,” the Agencia Brasil news agency reported.
The probe comes as Brazil will hold a presidential runoff on Oct 25 as official results showed Sunday that no candidate secured a majority of valid votes in the first round.
According to results released by the Superior Electoral Court, with over 99 percent of the ballots counted, Flavio Bolsonaro, presidential candidate of Brazil’s Liberal Party, garnered about 47 percent of valid votes while incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party came in second with about 45 percent.
According to results released by the Superior Electoral Court, with over 99 percent of the ballots counted, Flavio Bolsonaro, presidential candidate of Brazil’s Liberal Party, garnered about 47 percent of valid votes while incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party came in second with about 45 percent.