BRAZILIAN democracy prevailed during elections in October despite efforts by far-right social media militias to discredit the voting system, the head of the national electoral authority said on Monday.

Allegations that electronic voting machines were vulnerable to fraud were aimed at changing the political system, Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes told a business conference on Brazil in New York.

Mr Moraes has been a thorn in President Jair Bolsonaro’s side, opening investigations into him and his far-right allies, but he did not mention the head of state by name.

The outgoing president was the main mouthpiece of the persistent baseless accusations that the country’s electronic voting system was rigged in favour of his left-wing rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, commonly known as Lula.

Mr Bolsonaro narrowly lost an October 30 run-off vote to Lula. Although he did not concede defeat, he did not block the handover of power. Some of his supporters, however, have refused to accept the result.

“Democracy in Brazil was attacked, but it survived. Democracy resisted because the country has strong institutions and an independent judiciary,” said Mr Moraes, who used to be head of the Superior Electoral Tribunal.

“It wasn’t the electronic voting that they wanted to replace, but the political system based on free voting. The intention was to attack democracy itself,” Mr Moraes said.

Outside the conference in Manhattan, dozens of rowdy supporters of the defeated president heckled Mr Moraes as he arrived with other Brazilian judges. The demonstrators shouted that the election had been “stolen” and called for a military coup.

Last Friday, Brazil’s armed forces commanders said that electoral disputes must be resolved under the rule of law.

Mr Moraes said that during the election campaign, “digital militias” had resorted to spreading misinformation and aggressive hate messages, which had been “corroding” democracy for some time.

“This began in the United States, with the far right, and spread to eastern Europe and then to Brazil,” he added.

Mr Moraes praised the speed with which Brazil can count votes with its electronic voting system, with an election winner announced in two hours and 38 minutes on October 30 despite the country’s huge size.

Lula will be sworn in as president on January 1 2023.

His victory in Latin America’s largest country is the latest in a “pink tide” of leftwingers coming to power across the region.