As Brazil prepares for an election to be held on October 2, experts have warned that incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro could refuse to leave office if he loses the race to his closest contender, Workers’ Party candidate and former president Luiz Ignacio “Lula” da Silva.

Although most opinion polling shows Lula comfortably ahead of Bolsonaro, the incumbent president has suggested that he might refuse to recognize the results if he is defeated. In the run-up to the election, Bolsonaro has expressed skepticism about the fairness of the country’s voting machines—seemingly taking a page from similar complaints on the American far right after former president Donald Trump’s electoral loss to Joe Biden in November 2020. Many of Bolsonaro’s most fervent supporters have also claimed that they would not recognize his defeat, potentially laying the groundwork for a Brazilian version of the January 6 attack in the United States.

Controversy over Bolsonaro’s willingness to concede defeat led the U.S. Senate to unanimously pass a resolution on Wednesday stating that it would quickly recognize the election results if they were considered fair by the election’s international observers. The resolution, which is symbolic and does not involve legislation, also condemned “efforts to incite political violence and undermine the [Brazilian] electoral process” and called on President Joe Biden to “reconsider the relationship between the United States [and] any government that comes to power in Brazil through undemocratic means.” Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Tim Kaine (D-VA), who co-sponsored the resolution, argued in a statement that it “would be unacceptable for the United States to recognize a government that came to power undemocratically, and it would send a horrific message to the entire world … It is important for the people of Brazil to know we’re on their side, on the side of democracy.”

Although Bolsonaro and Lula are the only plausible winners of Brazil’s election, several minor parties have nominated their own candidates. If any candidate fails to win an outright majority in the first round of voting, a second round is scheduled to take place four weeks later, on October 30.

Tempers in Brazil have run high in the run-up to the vote. Bolsonaro has painted Lula, who served as president from 2003 to 2010, as a communist, while Lula has condemned Bolsonaro as a right-wing authoritarian intent on destroying Brazilian democracy.

Trevor Filseth is a current and foreign affairs writer for the National Interest.

Image: Reuters.