Polling stations closed in Brazil at the scheduled time, 9 p.m. in Paris, this Sunday, October 30, after a delicate day of voting punctuated by incidents involving the federal road police (PRF). The results of this second round of the presidential election, between Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro, are expected later in the evening.
Long queues to decide between the outgoing head of state and his predecessor, in a country where voting is authorized from the age of 16, and compulsory from the age of 18.
Some 156 million voters were called to the polls this Sunday in Brazil, and the whole question is whether everyone was able to access their polling station to express themselves.
Throughout the country, according to our correspondent in São Paulo, Martin Bernardthe operations went well, until a controversy broke out in the middle of this crucial day.
To block abstention, and encourage participation, the authorities had taken measures. First, public transport was free. There was some resistance in one city to this measure, but eventually it was put in place. Above all, justice had prohibited the police from carrying out road checks. However, in one region in particular, irregularities have been reported in this regard.
And this region is the Nordeste, Lula’s native region and the poorest in Brazil, where the left is the strongest, and where there have been a number of illegal checks instituted by the road police.
During the day, leaders of the Workers’ Party relayed videos of buses carrying voters stopped on their way, especially in rural areas of this region. ” It is unacceptable what is happening at the moment in the Nordeste “, even declared Lula da Silva on his Telegram account.
►Read again: A divided Brazil goes to the polls to elect its new president
“PRF criminal operation”
According Folha de Sao Paulo, more than 500 filter dams aimed at controlling coaches were recorded at midday across the country, 70% more than in the first round. “ The PRF stops coaches that have been chartered. Vote buying is an electoral crime “, retorted the bolsonarist Nikolas Ferreira, elected deputy on October 2, welcoming that the police intervene in the face of these” voice buying “, in his words.
the bolsonarists already have a justification for blocking the buses: they would be chartered by the PT, therefore a crime. good game! it could work https://t.co/4HsPbB8fRY
— Anne Vigna/Brazil (@anmexico) October 30, 2022
The president of his training, Gleisi Hoffmann, for his part denounced on Twitter “ a criminal PRF operation “. Earlier in the day, she went so far as to demand the arrest of the director of this police force, Silvinei Vasques, who posted an image on Instagram calling for a vote for Mr. Bolsonaro, before deleting it.
“No violation of the right to vote”
Abstention in the poorest regions of Brazil is a potentially decisive factor. In a statement, the NGO Human Rights Watch expressed its ” great concern in the face of what she called “ PRF operations that would delay or prevent voters from accessing polling stations “.
Monster traffic jams have in fact been recorded as far as Rio de Janeiro, in particular at the level of a filter dam installed on the bridge linking the megalopolis to Niteroi. According to the daily O Globoa hundred natives of Querência, in the state of Mato Grosso, complained that they were unable to vote in the absence of public transport.
Alexandre de Moraes, president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), even had to intervene, at the end of the day, confirming problems, without the latter proving to be in his eyes likely to hinder the smooth running of operations. He conceded a possible “ conflict “, however, not preventing anyone from voting according to him.
So some began to speak of a coup, Judge Moraes simply ordered the lifting of filtering dams ” to avoid voter delays “, specifying that” no coach had to turn back “. ” There was no infringement of the right to vote “, he insisted, ” delays “constituting the only” possible harm “.
Above all, he ruled out the possibility of delaying the closing of the polls, a request made at the end of the day by PT supporters, without much hope of success, to ensure that no one had been prevented from formulating their crucial choice. for the future of the country, and to increase the pressure.
In recent days, polling institutes were considering a tight result, Lula winning in the surveys. If the vote was obviously held without violence, the campaign was brutal. Everything opposes the two qualified candidates for this second round. Brazilians, extraordinarily polarized, are now holding their breath.
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