Flávio Bolsonaro's passports cancelled after he fails to surrender them

Flávio Bolsonaro's passports cancelled after he fails to surrender them

Flávio Bolsonaro has not accepted defeat and has called for the election to be annulled

Police in Brazil say they have cancelled the passports of defeated right-wing presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro after he did not comply with an order to hand over the documents.

On Monday, the Supreme Court ordered Bolsonaro to give his passports to police within 24 hours as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering, which he denies.

At the time, Bolsonaro said he had no intention of leaving the country and insisted he would remain in Brazil to lead the opposition to his left-wing rival, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

But the deadline passed without the senator turning over the passports, leading to speculation that he may have left the country.

According to a police source cited by BBC News Brasil, federal officers are checking border crossings to determine whether Bolsonaro may have travelled to neighbouring Argentina.

Argentine authorities, however, told the BBC that there is no record of Bolsonaro entering their country through any border crossing.

Bolsonaro was already under investigation for alleged corruption linked to the financing of a film about his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted of plotting a coup and is under house arrest.

Alongside that case, Brazil's Supreme Court ordered police on Tuesday to investigate Flávio Bolsonaro's election campaign over alleged foreign funding.

The 45-year-old senator suffered a heavy defeat on Sunday when Lula beat him in a presidential run-off that Bolsonaro had been widely expected to win.

Opinion polls had placed him narrowly ahead of Lula, and analysts noted that Bolsonaro's first-round victory in the election on 4 October meant he was likely to win the run-off.

But after taking an early lead in the count, he was overtaken by the veteran incumbent, who became the first presidential candidate to overturn a first-round loss and win in the second round.

Lula won 51.79% of the vote, compared with Bolsonaro's 48.21%.

Despite trailing by 4.4 million votes, Bolsonaro has not conceded and has called for the election to be annulled.

He says he was disadvantaged because polling was extended by two hours on election day, even though the extension was requested by both his party and that of his rival.

He described the extension, which was ordered by a Supreme Court justice, as a "dirty trick".

However, the party he represented, the Liberal Party, has accepted the result, although it said the extension of voting "merits investigation".