Trump’s Brazil blooper: ‘125 million voted in India’s Presidential Election’ - The Indian Express

US President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that 125 million people voted in the first round of “India’s Presidential Election”. The vote he described appears to be Brazil’s election, which was held on Sunday, 4 October.

Trump used the post to say that US results take too long to count. He wrote that in Detroit, Philadelphia, California and other cities and states, results with far smaller numbers often take weeks. He ended with “Voting in America is CORRUPT”. In the post he first wrote the word “Rig” and then corrected it to “calculate”.

About 124.5 million Brazilians cast votes on Sunday, which is close to the figure Trump used, according to figures cited by Courthouse News. The post came a day after Brazil’s first round, which sent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro to a runoff.

In the post, Trump said the results of the vote he described came out soon after polls closed, on the same day. He compared this with the US, where he said counts in some cities and states take weeks even though the numbers are much smaller. He signed off as President DJT.

The post gave no evidence for his claims about US vote counting.

Brazil held the first round of its presidential election on Sunday, 4 October. With nearly all votes counted, Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, came first with about 47% of valid votes, Reuters said. Lula came second with about 45%.

Neither man won more than half of the valid votes, so the two will face each other in a second round on 25 October.

Brazil has nearly 159 million registered voters. About 124.5 million of them voted, and about 21% did not, according to figures cited by Courthouse News.

The result gave a lift to the Bolsonaro family. Flávio was picked by his father to carry on the family’s political work. Other family members and allies also won seats in Congress or state governor races.

Meanwhile, India does not choose its president by a nationwide vote. The president is elected by an Electoral College. It is made up of elected members of both Houses of Parliament and elected members of the state legislative assemblies, including Delhi and Puducherry.

The vote uses proportional representation with a single transferable vote, and the ballot is secret.

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