Police Accused of Suppressing Lula Vote in Brazil Election – Sunday, the most intensely fought election in Brazil since the fall of the military dictatorship deteriorated into charges that police attempted to suppress the vote in regions favorable to presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The Federal Highway Police, an organization closely aligned with the right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro, allegedly erected barriers to delay voters in the country’s impoverished northeast and other support centers for former president Lula.
Sunday evening, the Superior Electoral Court of Brazil announced that Lula had obtained around 51 percent of the vote, defeating Bolsonaro. Silvinei Vasques, director of the highway police, earlier posted a call to vote for Bolsonaro on Instagram, according to the newspaper O Globo. It was later deleted. A supporter of Lula, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues, requested his immediate arrest. The leading electoral authority in Brazil, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, ordered Vasques to cease operations immediately or face fines of roughly $100,000 per hour.
Later on Sunday, however, Moraes attempted to allay fears that a larger effort could taint the vote. Each incident will be investigated, he said, but the police have agreed with the demand to suspend activities. He stated that checkpoints slowed, but did not prohibit, voters from casting ballots, and that he would not extend voting hours past 5 p.m.
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“The damage caused to the voters was a delay during the inspections,” Moraes said. “There was no prejudice to the right to vote and, logically, there will be no postponement of the end of voting. There is no need to overstate this issue. There were no cases where voters went home.”
Despite the statement from Moraes, who has previously clashed with Bolsonaro, Lula’s Worker’s Party demanded an extension of voting in the 560 locations where it said “illegal” police operations had occurred. The party called for prioritizing extensions in the northeast, where it said the operations were carried out “with greater intensity.” The Rio-based Igarapé Institute, a think tank that studies security and violence, said the operations appeared to physically delay “thousands” of voters, but might have had a broader reach as news of the disruptions spread online.
“Since his election, Bolsonaro has tried to subvert Brazil’s democratic institutions,” said Ilona Szabó, the institute’s president. “What we are seeing today — hundreds of federal road police operations impeding citizens from casting their vote — is yet further proof of his efforts to undermine the democratic process.” G1 and O Globo reported Sunday that Bolsonaro asked his justice minister, Anderson Torres, to order the operations.
The publications reported that presidential aides anticipated the police would be able to prevent the Workers’ Party from transporting Lula’s voters. In Brazil, parties are prohibited from transporting voters to the polls. On Twitter, Eduardo Bolsonaro, a congressman and the president’s son, appeared to confirm his awareness of the operation. “We have operation ‘flip vote,’ ” he tweeted on Sunday.
“The (Worker’s Party) has a vote buying operation and they are upset that the police are working. Number 302 of the penal code says it’s a crime to buy food and transportation on election day. Please let the police work, and arrest anyone who wants to stop them.”
“The (Worker’s Party) has a vote buying operation and they are upset that the police are working. Number 302 of the penal code says it’s a crime to buy food and transportation on election day. Please let the police work, and arrest anyone who wants to stop them.” In a statement, they claimed to have escorted roughly 800 voting machines to their polling locations and seized 4.5 million reales, or $850,000, in 12 cases. They reported a 43% drop in road fatalities and a 72% reduction in injuries as a result.
They provided no additional information to support these allegations. “The PRF remains firm in its constitutional purpose of guaranteeing the security of society,” the agency said. Eduardo Bolsonaro tweeted that the police statement showed the police were complying with the law as usual. The operations shook some authorities to their core. Charles Cristiano, the mayor of one of the reportedly affected towns, stated that a highway police squad set up checkpoints at 8 a.m. on election day and maintained them for three and a half hours.
The declared purpose was to issue citations to motorcyclists who were not wearing helmets or had expired documentation. Cristiano stated that motorcycles are the principal mode of mobility in Cuité, particularly for rural residents who cannot always afford to maintain their vehicle documents. Lula received 79.69% of the valid votes in the first round of the October 2 election in the 22,000-person city in the interior of Brazil. Bolsonaro earned 15.31% of the vote. As a result of the checks, Cristiano reported that around 3 p.m., almost 40 percent of eligible voters had not yet cast their ballots.
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“I think it is” an attempt at suppression, Cristiano told The Washington Post. “Coincidentally, on Election Day, a blitz on the main access to the city? We are trying to get around it, calling people to come and vote, but unfortunately, many people are not voting. I think it will increase the number of abstentions.” The Civic Vigil, a coalition of dozens of civil society organizations monitoring voting, expressed concern.
Critics assert that Bolsonaro has weakened democracy during his tenure by populating the prosecutor’s office and police with loyalists and by selecting current and former generals to his cabinet and other important positions. He has hinted that, if elected, he may expand the Supreme Court, which Bolsonaro claims is biased against him. This year, Lula received the support of center-right leaders and ex-opponents, notably ex-president Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
