Runoffs in Brazil's presidential elections took place this past Sunday, Oct. 25, and the socialist candidate — Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ("Lula") — won after some procedural funny business. Among other things, Lula's campaign claimed that traffic congestion prevented some voters on city buses from getting to the polls before they closed at 5 PM. Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin, who has also been Lula's private attorney and was appointed to the Supreme Court by Lula, unilaterally issued an order demanding that the polls be reopened for two hours — but only in pro-Lula districts. In parts of the country that favored Lula's opponent, Flavio Bolsonaro, polls remained closed. Zanin's decision was also problematic because the country has an electoral court with exclusive jurisdiction over election procedures; Zanin does not sit on that court.

Lula ended up winning — a remarkable result, given that he had trailed Bolsonaro by 2 million votes in the first election round a few weeks prior. Never in modern Brazilian history has a presidential candidate who came in second in the first round of voting won in the runoff.

But that's not the worst part. Bolsonaro objected to the results and declared his intention to have the election investigated, whereupon Senhor Presidente Lula called for Bolsonaro's arrest and demanded that he surrender his passport.

How very democratic. This is the way a politician behaves when he is confident about his victory, right? He immediately orders the arrest of his opponent?

Bolsonaro knew what was coming; his father was arrested by Lula and is currently serving a 27-year sentence. He apparently........

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