the senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) said that “It is not possible to predict what will happen in Brazil” during the presidential elections in 2022. He argued that the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) should accept recommendations from the Armed Forces and provide security and transparency to the electoral process. The statement was given in an interview with the SBT News in this 4The fair (May 18, 2022).
Bolsonaro’s pre-campaign coordinator for reelection, Flávio Bolsonaro said that the Armed Forces indicated to the TSE “vulnerabilities” related to the electoral process.
According to him, the president of the Electoral Court, Edson Fachin, should not “assault” the Armed Forces as if it were “an intruder” in monitoring the elections, since the TSE itself invited the institution to accompany the process.
“If they accepted the invitation and are showing problems, then we will solve the problem because otherwise it will generate distrust in the result, whatever it may be, because the population is watching.”
According to Flávio, it is crucial that, among other measures, institutions such as the Armed Forces and the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) can monitor the investigations in parallel with the TSE. “What will happen, I don’t know if the TSE insists with this madness of wanting to keep whoever does the counting of the elections under wraps”he said. “It looks like they’re trying to hide something,” stated.
“We’ve been warning you since before. We are not going to wait for it to happen and then blame the problem.”
Asked how the Bolsonarista group would react if the former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (EN) wins the election in the 1st round, the president’s eldest son said that the internal polls of Bolsonaro’s campaign give “conviction” that the Chief Executive is the one who will win in the 1st phase of the election. But if the president is not re-elected, it will not be possible to challenge the outcome of the polls in court.
“So, look at the dilemma: who do you judicialize for? For themselves?”questions.
“That’s why I’m saying you have to be cautious, right? To put vanity aside. Why do I think it goes through the minds of those who are taking care of the TSE today? ‘Oh, let’s not give this political victory to Bolsonaro. Or else, as soon as we give in to Bolsonaro, he will have a political advantage with it. People will be discrediting the electoral process of previous elections’. I mean, they’re worried about their image. They are not concerned with democracy, or with respecting the will of the majority of the population, and that is very serious. What will happen [se Bolsonaro perder] I don’t know, but it’s obvious that this will generate a revolt in a considerable portion of the population. And it is up to the TSE to resolve this. Give peace of mind to the population knowing that they are voting for a candidate and the vote is going to the candidate. That simple.”
According to Flavio, “we are convinced that in voting we do not lose”. “Lula’s rejection is very high. Lula’s rejection has never been so high in the Northeast, where in theory he says he is strong”.
“Why interfere? Let the people decide. We want something transparent, safe. If they [ministros do TSE] do not want. I mean, look at the danger of instability like that, which exists if the electoral process takes place under this cloak of mistrust. You cannot predict what will happen in Brazil.”
In the interview, Flávio contested the TSE’s statement about the auditing of the polls: “Today, despite the TSE saying that it is [auditável]technicians say it is not auditable”.
the senator said, without naming names, that some ministers of STF (Federal Supreme Court) seem “to want to boycott the country”. Dclarified that the clashes between Bolsonaro and the Supreme can cease “if some of them stop wanting to make life hell” of the Chief Executive. Dthat the president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) wants “peace” in the government, but it depends on the collaboration of the ministers of the Court.
“Peace depends much less on Bolsonaro, it depends more on who seems to be wanting to boycott the country and participate in the election in a direct way and, as a result, favoring the ex-convict”said the senator, referring to Lula.
The president’s son said that he respects the institution, but that “few ministers” pose as a “salvation” for democracy. “It seems that they feel as if they themselves are an obstacle to saving Brazil from an ‘authoritarian Bolsonaro’ that will turn this here into a dictatorship. If I were going to do something outside the Constitution, I would have done it already.” stated.
DEFENSE RECOMMENDATIONS
The recommendations were not accepted by the TSE. According to the Court, contributions to the electoral process could only be made until December 17, 2021. The list was sent on March 22 of this year. The deadline for changes to the election rules ended on March 5.
The letter with the answers was sent to all members of the CTE (Commission for the Transparency of Elections) and the OTE (Observatories for the Transparency of Elections). The commission was created by the TSE in September 2021 to discuss the transparency and security of elections. The Ministry of Defense is part.
The folder recommendations address 7 topics. Are they:
- confidence level of the ballot box integrity test;
- random sampling process to select the urns that make up the integrity test;
- totaling of votes;
- supervision and auditing;
- public safety test;
- verification of irregularities in integrity tests;
- duplicity between abstention and vote.
Here’s the intact the Ministry of Defense recommendations and the TSE responses (9.5 MB).
Petrobras
For Flávio, the president is incapable of modifying the pricing policy adopted by Petrobras due to the projected impact on the market. “The dollar goes to heights, devalues the value of Petrobras […] If he was going to do it he would have done it already“, he said.
The senator argues that the change in the policy in force since the Michel Temer government would bring instability among the state-owned shareholders, who account for about 80% of the shares. “The consequence will be shortages in Brazil. This is happening in Argentina, look at Venezuela”.
The way out proposed by Flávio is to negotiate with governors the exemption of a portion of the ICMS, which is levied on the price of fuel at the pump.
#TSE #reaction #judicial #Flávio