‘It’s over’: Jair Bolsonaro reportedly accepts defeat in Brazil election

Jair Bolsonaro has reportedly thrown in the towel after his presidential election defeat in Brazil on Sunday, telling members of the supreme court: "It's over."

However, shortly after that appearance, he made his way to the supreme court where he met seven of its judges, including Edson Fachin, who later told journalists that Bolsonaro had indicated to them that he understood the writing was on the wall.

"The president used the verb 'to end' in the past tense," Fachin said. "He said: 'It's over.' Therefore, [one must] look ahead."

Bolsonaro appeared to send a different message with his deliberately ambiguous two-minute address on Tuesday. In it, the rightwing populist called the demonstrations "the fruit of indignation and a feeling of injustice about how the electoral process played out". "Peaceful protests will always be welcome," Bolsonaro said, although he said destruction was not welcome.

Some hardcore supporters reportedly took those words as a call for them to stay on the streets. But the demonstrations appeared to be waning on Wednesday morning, with federal highway police saying there were 167 barricades, down from 563 on Monday.

Lula won what was widely seen as Brazil's most important election in decades by a margin of 2.1m votes - 50.9% to 49.1% - and has been quickly embraced by the international community after four years in which Brazil became a pariah under Bolsonaro.

The US vice-president, Kamala Harris, is reportedly planning to attend Lula's inauguration in the capital, Brasilia, on 1 January.