President of the TSE, Alexandre de Moraes, in Brasilia
BRASILIA (Reuters) – The president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Alexandre de Moraes, attributed this Monday to political issues the note from the Ministry of Defense that said, without presenting evidence, it was not possible to exclude the possibility of fraud in the elections .
The note was released last week, one day after a Defense report delivered to the TSE did not point to any type of fraud in the October election.
Speaking during a Lide event in New York along with other members of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Moraes downplayed the military’s note.
“Politically, it was discussed, but an inconsistency may eventually occur,” said Moraes, who, in an ironic tone, quoted a comment by a political journalist on television about the Defense report. “It may or may not have extraterrestrial life in the universe.”
“So, in fact, nothing was pointed out and if it were pointed out it would be investigated, because there is no one, in any institution that is more willing to improve, to give full transparency to the electronic voting machines than the Superior Electoral Court”.
When contacted, the Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The president of the TSE reiterated that the military report delivered to the court did not show any type of fraud in the ballot boxes. According to him, at no time did the military raise any doubts regarding the electronic voting machines.
“No irregularity, inconsistency, or fraud has been identified since the installation of electronic ballot boxes until today,” he said at the event, referring to the adoption of the electronic voting system since 1996.
“The military, at no time, raised any doubts regarding the electronic ballot boxes”, he added.
The TSE, which in recent months has measured forces with the military regarding the security of electronic voting machines, issued an official note shortly after the release of the Defense report in which it said it had received with satisfaction the document that “did not point to the existence of any fraud or inconsistency in electronic ballot boxes and in the electoral process”, and said that suggestions forwarded for improvement will be “opportunely analyzed”.
The possibility that the Armed Forces document questioned the outcome of the elections was one of the arguments for protests by supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro, who was defeated in the second round of the race for the Planalto Palace by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
(Reporting by Ricardo Brito, in Brasília)
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