According to reports on social media and the Brazilian press, Brazilian voters were stopped by the Federal Highway Police (PRF) on their way to the polls in several cities in the northeast. Such operations were prohibited on Saturday night until the end of the day second round In the elections to Judge Alexandre de Moraes, President of the Supreme Court of Elections of Brazil (TSE).
Moraes has already ensured that no voters are prevented from voting due to the operations of the Highway Police. He stressed in a press conference that “there was no harm to voters in the exercise of voting.” According to the judge, voting took place without problems and no consideration was given to postponing the closing date of polling stations.
In addition to ordering a halt to actions against public transportation available to take voters to the polls, the Minister prohibited the publication of the results of Federal Police operations related to elections. If the decision is not respected, the directors of the PRF and the Federal Police may be charged with disobedience and electoral crime.
There are serious allegations that the PRF, even after a decision by the TSE, will implement processes/barriers to prevent Northeasterners from exercising sovereign voting power. They know they are going to lose the election and want to try to interfere with the outcome. unacceptable! pic.twitter.com/YYxMBT8JCF
– Erica Kokai is Squid 13! (@erikakokay) October 30, 2022
The decision was made at the request of Federal Representative Paulo Teixeira, of the Lula da Silva coalition, who requested that measures be taken to ensure that the PRF is not used in favor of the campaign of incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro.
Alexandre de Moraes explained that “these are serious facts that justify rapid action and taking appropriate measures in order to preserve the freedom of the right to vote, with free access to transportation on election day.”
However, the police operations advanced this Sunday “without any indication of the reasons” to justify them, Moraes considered.
Following a new request from the Brasil da Esperança coalition (formed by the Workers’ Party, the Communist Party and Partido Verde), the TSE asked Silvinei Vasques, director general of the PRF, to urgently explain the police operations reported on Sunday. This afternoon, the director of the PRF went to the courthouse to provide clarification.
Photograph: Adriano Machado/Reuters
Vasques makes no secret of his support for Brazil’s current head of state, and this weekend he shared on social media an image of an appeal to vote for Jair Bolsonaro, which reads “Vote 22. President BolsonaroHe turned it off after a few hours.
The Lula da Silva Alliance also requested that failure to comply with TSE orders result in a fine of 500,000 reais (about 95,000 euros) per hour for non-compliance.
“The Brasil da Esperança Alliance has learned that Federal Highway Police agents are carrying out operations throughout Brazil – mainly in the North-East – with the aim of preventing the circulation of vehicles transporting potential voters for candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,” reads if on request party coalition.
“It appears that this is an intentional act aimed at taking advantage of the candidacy of the current president of the republic,” he cites Folha DS Paulowho received no response after trying to contact PRF.
According to PRF figures that the newspaper was able to access, by 12:35 pm local time (3:35 pm in Lisbon) 514 bus inspections had already been carried out, in different parts of the country coinciding with Lula da Silva’s electoral strongholds. . In the city of Alagoas alone, in the northeast, at least 82 buses were stopped.
the number of police operations In the second round of the election it was already 70% higher than in the first, on October 2.