Flavio Bolsonaro has declared ‌himself the rightful president-elect of Brazil, as he arrived in Miami after fleeing his home country.

Bolsonaro lost Sunday’s presidential election to President Luiz Inacio ‌Lula da Silva.

He thanked US President Donald Trump and Argentine leader Javier Milei for helping him leave his country and for welcoming him.

“I want to say, not only to my 60 million voters but to the Brazilian people, that I am the elected president and ‌that the criminals who ‌stole Brazil’s ⁠election are part of a criminal organisation that has established a ​tyranny,” he said in an open letter shared with journalists by his allies.

Bolsonaro provided no evidence for the alleged electoral fraud. International observers have found Sunday’s vote fair.

Valdemar Costa Neto – who leads the right-wing Liberal Party that Bolsonaro represents – has acknowledged the result of the election.

Bolsonaro and his family arrived in Miami on Wednesday (local time). They left Brazil after he refused to comply with a Brazilian Supreme Court ⁠order to surrender his passports.

He left ‌under ​a shroud of secrecy after the court order, which relates to a money-laundering investigation in which Bolsonaro ​denies wrongdoing.

In Miami, he and his ‌family received US visas.

Trump has said he thought Bolsonaro “and his family were treated very unfairly”.

“We gave him a pass to come into the country,” he said.

But he declined to discuss the allegations in Bolsonaro’s letter.

“I won’t get involved. It was a very strange election, that’s for sure,” Trump said.

Lula’s office, Brazil’s federal electoral court and the supreme court did not immediately respond to requests for ​comment.

Bolsonaro based his rejection of the result on the fact that the a Lula-appointed Supreme Court justice had extended voting by two hours on Sunday due to ​allegations ​of voter suppression in left-leaning north-eastern state ​brought by Lula’s campaign. However, Bolsoanro’s campaign also ‌sought an extension due to rains in conservative-leaning southern states.

Bolsonaro lost to Lula by more than 4.5 million votes. Fewer than 35,000 votes, or some 0.03 per cent of the total, were cast in the extra two hours of voting ordered by the Supreme Court, according to an analysis ​of electoral records by Insper’s Pedro Burgos.

Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court for alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in two cases in which he denies wrongdoing.

The court had ordered Bolsonaro to hand over his regular and diplomatic passports by noon on Tuesday (local time) – two days after he lost the vote to Lula.

Bolsonaro’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, also fled to Florida after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula.

-with AAP