Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro waves to people during the celebration for the 198th anniversary of the country's Independence Day in Brasilia, Brazil, Sept. 7, 2020. (Photo by Lucio Tavora/Xinhua)

 
Brazil's lower house of Congress voted down a plan by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro to alter the country's voting system on Tuesday, despite an unusual display of military hardware by the armed forces.

Politicians of all stripes called the parade of navy tanks, armored personnel carriers and amphibious vehicles a form of intimidation hours before lawmakers were set to vote on a constitutional amendment backed by Bolsonaro.

Brazil's lower house of Congress voted down the proposal with 229 votes in favor, 218 against and one abstention, with dozens of lawmakers absent. The vote fell 79 votes short of the three-fifths majority needed to approve a constitutional amendment.

The Navy said the parade had been planned long before the vote in the lower house of Congress was scheduled and it was meant to invite the president to an annual military exercise on Sunday.

With his popularity flagging amid the world's second-deadliest COVID-19 outbreak, Bolsonaro has insisted in recent weeks on adopting paper ballots for the 2022 election, based on unproven claims of fraud in Brazil's electronic voting system.

He has threatened not to accept the results of next year's presidential election, which polls show him losing to former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Neither man has officially announced his candidacy.

Flanked by the commanders of the armed forces, Bolsonaro stood outside the Planalto presidential palace as the military parade passed by. A Navy officer in combat gear walked up the ramp to hand him the invitation.

The sight of tanks by the presidential palace unsettled Brazilians who had lived under the 1964-85 military dictatorship.