Brazil's Liberal Party accepts Lula's win as police take Flavio Bolsonaro's passports

Flavio Bolsonaro lost the presidency on Sunday. On Monday, police stopped him in the street and took his passports.

The senator said the stop came as he left a visit to his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is in prison. "I was ordered right on the street to hand over my passports, and I'm also prohibited from leaving the country," he said in a video posted on social media. He said he will comply with the order and denied any plan to flee. He called the move a clear attempt to intimidate him and asked whether police would have acted the same way in the middle of the street had he won. Brazil's Supreme Court and federal police did not immediately reply to requests for comment, Reuters reported.

Bolsonaro said the ruling came from Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the judge who oversaw his father's coup trial, and that it rests on remarks his brother Eduardo made on a podcast last week, saying Flavio should leave Brazil if he lost the runoff. "I never said that," Bolsonaro said. Agência Brasil reported that the ruling cancels all of his passports, including the diplomatic passport he holds as a senator, and bars him from contacting lawyer Willer Tomaz. Tomaz is under investigation beside the senator in a case involving suspected money laundering and illegal foreign exchange deals tied to betting companies. Bolsonaro is also under investigation over alleged corruption and money laundering in the financing of a film about his father. He denies wrongdoing.

The electoral court gave Lula 51.79 percent of the valid vote against 48.21 percent for Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro first demanded that the court annul the result, pointing at a late extension of voting hours on Sunday. Brazilian media reported on Tuesday that he is abandoning the annulment bid and will file a different case, accusing Lula of abusing power by using public money to buy votes, pointing at debt relief for small business owners and free weekend public transport. That case has not been filed.

His own party has already moved on. The Liberal Party recognized Lula's win, breaking in public with its candidate's first response. The party is set to hold the largest group in both houses of Congress, and centrist and right wing parties together hold most seats, so Lula will govern his fourth term, starting in January, against a legislature his opponents control. Bolsonaro promised to build that opposition himself. "To withstand the chaos, I'm going to organize the opposition," he said.