Bolsonarista Defense Minister Paulo Sergio Nogueira de Oliveira has asked Brazil’s electoral authorities to authorize a technical investigation to improve the country’s electronic voting system, following Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s presidential election victory.
Nogueira de Oliveira has submitted to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) the report prepared by the Armed Forces, which he has accompanied by a letter in which he asks for the Armed Forces’ suggestions to be accepted, citing technical points to be corrected, as well as an analysis of the system’s source code, reports Agencia Brasil.
«The work was limited to the supervision of the electronic voting system», the outgoing minister has written in a letter, where he has criticized that there are no «comments on possible evidence of electoral crimes».
According to the document, made by the military technical team of the Armed Forces, the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court (TSE) made it difficult to analyze the source codes of the voting machines, while they have pointed out possible flaws in the control mechanisms of the system.
«However, that no discrepancies were observed between the results printed by the ballots and the final tally published by the electoral authorities», adds the report.
The TSE, for its part, said in a statement on Wednesday that it has «received with satisfaction» the final report made by the Ministry of Defense.
«The Superior Electoral Court has received with satisfaction the final report of the Ministry of Defense, which, like all the control entities, did not point out the existence of any fraud or inconsistency,» reads the note from the president of the TSE, Alexandre de Moraes.
In addition, De Moraes reaffirmed that «the electronic voting machines are a source of national pride». «The 2022 elections demonstrate the efficiency, fairness and total transparency of the vote counting and totalization,» he added.
However, experts point out that the military report contains omissions and could feed the conspiracy theories of Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters, who point to an electoral fraud due to the small difference in votes between both candidates, reports Brazilian newspaper ‘O Globo’.