The co-regent general of Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court, Benedito Gonçalves, has issued a recommendation reminding the presidential candidates, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro, that «any type of propaganda» is prohibited this Sunday, the second round of the Brazilian presidential elections.
«From the point of view of electoral normality, it would be prudent to act prophylactically in the face of the risk and reiteration of behaviors that ultimately affect the right of each person to express their free choice at the polls on voting day,» said Gonçalves, according to the Brazilian newspaper ‘Folha de Sao Paulo’.
The magistrate thus defended «reaffirming the pact of respect for the will formed by each voter and by each elector, with personal and intangible synthesis of all information collected throughout the campaign and that at the final moment of the contest must be safeguarded against undue disturbances».
Gonçalves clarified that interviews and statements are not forbidden, but electoral messages cannot be launched in speeches that receive press coverage.
Bolsonaro’s campaign denounced in the first round that Lula used the press as a «pulpit», «as if it were an electoral act». Later, O Globo television broadcast an interview with Lula, on the same election day.
