During Sunday, the Federal Highway Police (PRF) carried out a series of operations to stop buses, creating obstacles for thousands of Brazilians who were heading to polling stations. Some roads have been cut off because of this raids.
According to the PRF internal numbers, for which Folha DS Paulo Arrived, as of early Sunday afternoon, 537 operations had taken place – 70 percent higher than the number recorded in the first round of elections, on October 2.
More than half of these operations were carried out in the northeastern region, where President-elect Lula da Silva had the greatest advantage over Jair Bolsonaro.
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
On Saturday, the President of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Alexandre Moraes, banned any operation by the Highway Police on public transport. Understand that such measures can delay or prevent voters from going to the polls.
At the end of Sunday afternoon, after Moraes had an urgent meeting with the director of the PRF, Sylvini Vasques, the president of the TSE confirmed that no voter had been prevented from voting due to the operations.
“The damage I did to the voters was the potential delay during that inspection,” Moraes told reporters. “I say again: No bus back to the original, everyone went to the polling place and voted. Everyone voted.”
Tweet embed What a beauty, huh, PRF!! Lost all respect from Brazil pic.twitter.com/u5EQBBZ3zs– Valeria Braga October 30, 2022
Moraes also mentioned that Vasques confirmed that the PRF was only following the passcode. “In other words, a bus with bald tires, its headlight broken, unable to drive, approached and a fine was issued,” Moraes said.
However, early on Sunday afternoon, a TRF agent sent a message on The WhatsApp To commemorate the siege imposed on the voters of Lula. in messageobtained by Brazilian social media, the police officer also stated that the road operations were by order of the TRF “top”.
“Look at the face of someone who is concerned about the minister’s decisions,” Adalberto Alfredo Schumann, a police officer in Brasilia, said in a message shared on a WhatsApp group with other co-workers.
“Fulfilling the program ticket only and chasing Lula voters who left the can to return and could not return”, Added in the message. With the ‘program card’ the agent is referring to the conditional directions for that date, coming from the ‘top’ of the PRF.
The Director General of the Corporation will have sent a letter in the early hours of Sunday to all departments of the PRF stating that the TSE’s decision did not impose “any limit on the exercise of regular inspection activity of the Federal Highway Police”.He identified “faithful fulfillment” of the process. On Saturday, Vasques also expressed his support for Bolsonaro via his Instagram account, but later deleted the photo.
PRF’s operations are being criticized on social media as an attempt to interfere with the outcome of the election by preventing Lula da Silva voters from attending the polls. On the other hand, “Bolsonaristas” praised PRF’s performance, noting that it rendered a great service to the nation.
The Lula da Silva Alliance demanded that PRF be fined 500,000 reais for failing to comply with TSE orders.
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