(Brasilia) Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) on Wednesday rejected a request from incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro, who is seeking re-election on Sunday, for an investigation into alleged irregularities in the broadcast of election propaganda on the radio.
Posted yesterday at 10:22 p.m.
The president of the TSE, Alexandre de Moraes, rejected the request on the grounds that it was not accompanied by evidence, which could constitute an “electoral offence” and an attempt to “destabilize the second round”, four days before that -this.
On Monday, the far-right president’s campaign team denounced “electoral fraud” supposedly orchestrated to favor left-wing candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, his opponent in the Sunday poll. “Countless radio stations do not broadcast adequately” the electoral propaganda determined by justice, had tried to argue the team of Mr. Bolsonaro to justify this accusation.
Allies of the outgoing head of state have claimed to have been harmed by the lack of broadcast of some 154,000 election announcements, including a large part in the northeast of the country, Lula’s stronghold.
“This is an expressly inept request, because the days, times and radio channels in which the electoral norm would have been violated have not even been identified,” replied Mr. Moraes, who is also a judge. of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), in its decision.
The magistrate clarified that the request presented by Jair Bolsonaro’s campaign team had been made by a company “which is not specialized in audits”.
He added that this request, presented by the Liberal Party of which the president is a member, could be an electoral offence, and therefore decided to open an investigation for disinformation and attacks against institutions, which will be carried out by the STF. .
Mr. Bolsonaro nevertheless reaffirmed on Wednesday, after the TSE’s decision, that “tens of thousands” of radio stations had omitted his electoral propaganda, which “unbalances” the electoral fight and “interferes in the result of the election”.
“We will go all the way, within the framework of the Constitution, to assert what our listeners have seen, a huge imbalance,” he said in a speech from the presidential palace, alongside his minister in particular. of Justice, Anderson Torres.
According to the Datafolha institute, Lula is credited with 49% of voting intentions, against 45% to Jair Bolsonaro.