The president of Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Alexandre de Moraes, has ruled out extending voting hours in the second round of the Brazilian presidential elections to be held this Sunday despite the controversy over the obstruction of voting after more than 500 interventions by the Federal Traffic Police (PRF), led by an avowed Bolsonarista.
Morales stressed that «there will be no postponement of the end of the voting». «Voting ends at 5 p.m. as scheduled, without any problem,» he has assured. «There is no need to superlativize this case,» he added.
However, he has downplayed the possible repercussions of the PRF’s action. «The operations carried out, and there have been countless operations carried out according to the PRF director (…) have been carried out in accordance with the Brazilian Traffic Code. In other words, a bus with a flat tire, a broken headlight or one that did not meet the conditions to circulate was approached and an intervention was made», pointed out Moraes.
Moraes pointed out that these interventions «in some cases» have «delayed the arrival of voters to their polling station, but in no case have they prevented voters from reaching their polling stations», reports G1 television.
The general director of the PRF, Silvinei Vasquez, declared sympathizer of the candidate and president Jair Bolsonaro, has come this Sunday to respond to a requirement of the TSE itself that urged him to interrupt his interventions under penalty of fine, disqualification or arrest.
On Saturday, Moraes expressly forbade the PRF to carry out any operation related to the public transportation of voters so as not to hinder the voting.
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 outside the 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.
