‘It’s over’: Jair Bolsonaro reportedly accepts defeat in Brazil election

Jair Bolsonaro has reportedly thrown in the towel after his presidential election defeat in Brazil on Sunday, telling members of the supreme court: "It's over."

He went silent for nearly two days after being beaten by the leftwing former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the vote. When Bolsonaro finally appeared before the cameras on Tuesday afternoon, he failed to explicitly concede defeat or congratulate his vanquisher.

However, shortly after that appearance, he made his way to the supreme court where he met seven of its judges, including Edson Fachin, who later told journalists that Bolsonaro had indicated to them that he understood the writing was on the wall.

"The president used the verb 'to end' in the past tense," Fachin said. "He said: 'It's over.' Therefore, [one must] look ahead."

In an interview with the newspaper O Globo, Bolsonaro's vice-president, Hamilton Mourão, made it clear he accepted the defeat. "There's no point in crying any more, we lost the game," he said.

Mourão also signalled that he opposed the pro-Bolsonaro protests that have involved hardcore supporters blockading roads to demand a military uprising, bringing traffic chaos to cities including Rio and São Paulo. "There are 58 million people who are unhappy," Mourão said of Bolsonaro's voters. "But they agreed to take part in the game. So they now need to calm down."

Bolsonaro appeared to send a different message with his deliberately ambiguous two-minute address on Tuesday. In it, the rightwing populist called the demonstrations "the fruit of indignation and a feeling of injustice about how the electoral process played out". "Peaceful protests will always be welcome," Bolsonaro said, although he said destruction was not welcome.