Brazil’s Federal Traffic Police (PRF) carried out at least 560 inspections of vehicles carrying out public transportation for voters this Sunday, when the second round of the Brazilian presidential elections is being held, in areas considered favorable to the leftist candidate, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The PRF would have thus failed to comply with an express order of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), according to the PRF’s own internal control data cited by ‘Folha de Sao Paulo’.
The president of the TSE, Alexandre de Moraes, on Saturday expressly prohibited the PRF from carrying out any operation related to the public transportation of voters so as not to hinder the voting.
While these operations were taking place, developed mainly in the northeast of the country and denounced by the voters themselves on social networks, Moraes has urged the director of the PRF, Silvinei Vasquez, to immediately interrupt the control work under the threat of a fine of 100,000 reais per hour (about 18,900 euros), suspension of functions and arrest.
Vasques himself published on Saturday night on Instagram a post in support of Bolsonaro that he later deleted. «Vote 22. Bolsonaro president,» the text read.
INTERVENTIONS IN THE NORTHEAST According to Globo TV’s tally, as many as 272 of the first 549 operations (49.5 percent) were in the northeast of the country, considered a Lula stronghold. 59 were in the north (10.7 percent), 48 in the southeast (8.4 percent) and 48 in the south (8.74 percent).
The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Anderson Torres, has expressed to the Federal Supreme Court his «perplexity» about the information on the PRF’s actions to «use the state machine to cause damage to the electoral process».
The Brazil of Hope coalition, which represents Lula, also responded to the controversy and requested the arrest of Vasques and the regional superintendents who are not complying with the order of the Superior Electoral Court.
For her part, the president of Lula’s Workers’ Party, Gleisi Hoffmann, has urged the political officers of the PT to go to official headquarters to request an arrest warrant against those who do not comply with the court order.
ELECTORAL OBSERVERS National and international electoral observers have also expressed «great concern» about the denunciations on the intervention of the PRF, according to sources under condition of anonymity quoted by ‘Folha’.
The Carter Center, the Organization of American States and Electoral Transparency Brazil are participating in this process with electoral observation missions, but due to the nature of the mission they cannot make a statement until the closing of the polls.
A Carter Center official has warned that these are «practices that imply a change in the rules and operations in the middle of a voting process.» «They are totally out of international standards of electoral transparency», he said, quoted by ‘Folha’.
The general coordinator of Electoral Transparency Brazil, for her part, expressed her concern for the information disseminated and indicated that she is carefully reviewing what happened.
