Thousands of Brazilians rallied outside army barracks in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and other cities on Tuesday, urging the military to intervene to prevent left-wing President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking power next year.

“We want a better Brazil. We don’t want Lula taking over on January 1, we don’t want a communist country,” bank teller Lais Nunes, 30, told AFP in Rio.

Demonstrators dressed in green and gold waved Brazilian flags and sang the national anthem on a public holiday.

“There is various information that there has been electoral fraud…we cannot accept that,” added police officer Leandro de Oliveira, 38, who claimed the national electoral tribunal was responsible for the alleged fraud.

Supporters of outgoing far-right President Jair Bolsonaro have alleged fraud linked to the electronic voting system in use since 1996.

Bolsonaro himself did this repeatedly without providing any evidence.

However, Brazil’s defense ministry issued a report dismissing alleged inconsistencies in the electronic results, while international observers also confirmed the election result.

Lula, who also served as president from 2003 to 2010 and left with sky-high approval ratings, won the Oct. 30 runoff with just under 51 percent of the vote to Bolsonaro’s 49 percent.

In the capital, Brasilia, thousands gathered in front of the army’s headquarters, some holding banners reading “SOS Armed Forces” and “Audit at the polls.”

Security in the capital was tightened and police restricted access to the area around the Presidential Palace, Parliament and the Supreme Court.

Similar protests took place immediately after the second ballot last month.

Since then, many people have camped outside the army headquarters in Sao Paulo, where protests also erupted on Tuesday, as well as in Belo Horizonte.

Apart from a brief speech two days after his defeat, Bolsonaro remained secretive and a recluse, his official schedule remaining empty.

Not only has he disappeared from public life, but also from social media, where he used to be extremely active, even running the majority of his successful 2018 campaign online.

He is not attending the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, where Brazil will be represented by its top diplomat, Carlos Franca.