RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro has abandoned plans to seek the annulment of Sunday's presidential runoff, but will pursue separate legal action against incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's campaign over power abuse, Brazilian media reported Monday.
Lula won Sunday's runoff with 51.79 percent of valid votes, defeating Bolsonaro, who received 48.21 percent, according to results released by Brazil's Superior Electoral Court.
Bolsonaro, the candidate of the right-wing Liberal Party, refused to concede defeat in remarks in Brasilia late Sunday, saying he would seek to have the election annulled.
Earlier Sunday, Brazil's Supreme Federal Court ordered polling stations nationwide to extend voting by two hours in response to disruptions caused by public transport stoppages and heavy rain.
The extension applied only to polling stations that were still open when the decision was made by the Superior Electoral Court. Stations that had already closed were not reopened.
Bolsonaro argued that the measure disadvantaged voters in areas where polling stations were not reopened and said his legal team would challenge the election results.
However, his allies and lawyers persuaded him to drop the plan, arguing that a challenge to the validity of the election had little legal basis and was unlikely to succeed in the country's electoral and supreme courts, Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported.
Instead, Bolsonaro plans to file an Electoral Judicial Investigation Action, seeking to have Lula's ticket disqualified over alleged abuses of political and economic power during the campaign, CNN Brazil reported, citing members of Bolsonaro's campaign.
"What he did was an unprecedented abuse of political and economic power, creating a complete imbalance in the electoral contest," Bolsonaro said in a video posted on social media.
Valdemar Costa Neto, president of the Liberal Party, said Monday that the party had recognized the election result.
Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has ordered Bolsonaro to surrender his passports to the Federal Police and barred him from leaving the country.
The ruling is part of an investigation involving Bolsonaro and lawyer Willer Tomaz, according to Brazil's public news agency Agencia Brasil.
Moraes also prohibited Bolsonaro from contacting Tomaz, Brazilian media reported. Both men are under investigation by the Federal Police on suspicion of money laundering and illegal foreign exchange transactions. ■
