'Get your head in the right place,' dejected Bolsonaro urges supporters to clear roads

A day after he broke his silence to say he would follow the constitution, Brazil's incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday urged his supporters to clear the highways they are currently occupying the in the country. 

In a video posted on his Facebook page, a dejected-looking Bolsonaro said the time is to "get your head in the right place." 

"I know you are upset, you are sad, you expected something else. Me too. I'm just as upset as you are. But we have to have our heads on straight," he said. 

This comes as supporters of Bolsonaro held rallies to call for an armed forces intervention following the election of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. 

Bolsonaro said that the obstruction of highways harms the population’s right to come and go and said that one cannot "lose legitimacy."

"Protests and demonstrations are very welcome, they are part of the democratic game. [….] Now, there's something that's not cool. The closing of highways in Brazil harms people's right to come and go. It's in our Constitution. And we've always been within those four lines. You have to respect the rights of other people who are moving," he added.

This comes as thousands of Bolsonaro's supporters were seen in all major cities like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro carrying Brazil's yellow-and-green flag, blowing horns and chanting anti-Lula slogans.

"We hope the army will intervene in this situation, we know that those elections were fraudulent," Reinaldo da Silva, 65, a retired government worker at a rally at the entrance to a Sao Paulo army barracks, told Reuters. He added that he came to the streets because he wants "Brasil to be free, socialism does not work with the Brazilian nation."

According to Brazilian Police Federal Highway, similar rallies were held at barracks in nine states and the capital Brasilia.

Though the stance of Bolsonaro supporters have triggered fears of a military dictatorship, reminiscent of what happened in 1964, reports claim that armed forces have been wary of direct involvement in politics since the dictatorship left the country in economic chaos. 

Paulo Chagas, a retired cavalry general who campaigned for Bolsonaro in 2018, told Reuters: "The military know full well what their duty is: the constitution does not allow them to intervene in politics." 

Yesterday, after Bolsonaro left the podium at the Alvorada palace in the capital Brasília without taking questions, his chief of staff Ciro Nogueira stepped in to say that the "process of transition" of power would begin. 

There were speculations that this unusual way of letting his minister be the one to announce the transition could also be a ruse to buy time without pressure as he consolidates the rest of the insurrection. 

Much to the dismay of Bolsonaro, world leaders were quick to congratulate Lula and Brazil's Supreme Electoral Court too declared leftist Lula the next president.