For months, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has peddled conspiracy theories about the integrity of his countrys voting system, setting the stage for the embattled right-wing leader to question the results of next years elections if he loses. Bolsonaro has even claimed that if Brazils Congress does not alter the constitution to overhaul its election system and add paper ballot receipts to its electronic voting system, Brazil wont do elections at all .

The potential dangers of that scenario became even starker Thursday morning, when one of Brazils largest newspapers reported that Gen. Walter Braga Netto an influential military leader and Bolsonaro ally who currently serves as Brazils minister of defense told key congressional leaders that there would be no elections in 2022 if there were no printed and auditable vote.

The report from O Estado de S. Paulo (or Estado) sent shock waves across Brazil, a country already on notice about the potential dangers of election fraud conspiracies. For months, Brazilians have worried that Bolsonaro, an admirer of former U.S. President Donald Trump , may be laying the groundwork for his own version of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and that such an episode would pose a far graver risk to Brazils comparably young democracy.

Brazils electronic election system is widely regarded as one of the worlds safest and most secure . But the possibility that Bolsonaro has the apparent backing of a top general, in a nation that was ruled by a military junta from 1964 to 1985, has added to fears that a president who has steadily eroded Brazils democratic institutions since taking office in 2018 could deal its democracy a fatal blow.

A lot of people understand that Trump failed because he was unable to change the opinion of the armed forces, said Oliver Stuenkel, a professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university in So Paulo.

In Brazil, you sort of had the armed forces as a barrier of last resort. These kinds of comments were hearing now, they get you to think, Whos going to hold it all together? he said. You kind of ask yourself, Who will stand up for and ensure not only the integrity of the electoral process, but that the elections will take place?