On the morning of this Sunday, October 30, various users of social networks in Brazil reported various checkpoints on federal highways, to stop trucks with supporters of Lula da Silva, who were on their way to vote at polling stations for which they must travel. long distances.
And it is that, this Sunday the second federal electoral round was carried out to elect the next president of Brazil, a position for which the current president, Jair Bolsonaro, and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva contain, the latter being the favorite to take the position.
Given this, the professor of the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro "UNIRIO", Celso Sánchez Pereira, pointed out during a briefing organized by Peninsula 360 Press, that this day the country was surprised by a significant number of people who were mobilizing on social networks, especially in the favelas and peripheries of Rio de Janeiro, saying that there was no transportation or trucks, especially from those cities sympathetic to Lula, to access the voting centers, an action that the president of the Superior Electoral Tribunal, Alexandre de Moraes, had guaranteed throughout the nation.
He also highlighted that, in the northeastern states of Brazil, federal authorities were carrying out a "quite expressive" number of checkpoints on all federal highways, with more than 560 operations being reported.
«In this set of situations there are already many groups denouncing an attempted coup, which is added to a series of electoral crimes such as the President of the Republic making a totally political demonstration when receiving the Flamenco Football Club that won the Copa Libertadores of America, visibly a campaign agenda in an illegal period," he said.
For her part, Zoe Alexandra, an internationalist with People Dispatch, highlighted the importance of noting that the actions take place in a context of great tension and threats regarding the electoral process.
"It seems more like an attempt to destabilize the country, to implant and sow fear, create a climate of confusion and discourage voting, which has been the main strategy of Bolsonaro's campaign."
He pointed out that the acts of violence are atrocious and unforgivable, which have served to make people afraid and not understand what is happening, and so they do not vote.
He recalled that the northeast of Brazil is a bastion of the left, and of the PT "Partido de los trabajadores", where during the first round the majority of the vote was in favor of Lula.
"It is a somewhat desperate strategy that hopefully does not have the impact of preventing this civic act, of participating in the civic process as important as the elections in Brazil," he said.
Alexandra reported that in Rio de Janeiro things are progressing without major problems in terms of voting and they have been able to take free transportation to get to the polls.
On her occasion, Daniela Pastrana from Pie de Página, explained that in Sao Paulo the day has been relatively calm and it has been very easy to detect the people who vote for Lula, while the one for Bolsonaro is more discreet because she said, "it does not seem make them very proud to vote for him."
"It seems that there is a silent vote that is not like one that generates a lot of pride in some people, we saw it in the box where Lula voted, there were people who, as you talked to them, told you that their intention was for Bolsonaro, but it was not. one thing they made manifest in what they carried.”
"The intention to discourage voting is not so clear in Sao Paolo, however, there is a lot of uncertainty about what you hear in many places," he said.
Rodrigo Dantas, a former candidate for senator in Brasilia, highlighted that there is a large-scale operation by the police, armed forces and paramilitaries, as well as the Bolsonaro local heads of government who are trying in every possible way to prevent voters from Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who live in the peripheral areas and the countryside, do not have access to polling places.
“This threatens the election because the electoral research institutes project a fairly small difference between the two candidates, by a few million votes. The actions to contain the conditions of local voting access are concentrated in the Northeast, which is the region of the country where Lula has the longest electoral advantage. At this moment it is impossible to say if the actions will influence the final result of the election in a significant and decisive way, “he pointed out.
"We will only know the real impact on the result of the election by comparing the last minute electoral investigations, which are quite faithful to the actual results."
Finally, Dantas stressed that “those in power threaten not to hand him over and to retain him by force and he has been doing so continuously for 4 years. It is time to guarantee that democracy in Brazil remains.
Claudia Martínez from Canal 14 de México, who is in Sao Paulo, specified that in view of the actions of the authorities to carry out the checkpoints reported in the north and northeast of the country, the Police came out to say that these are only security operations.
While the president of the Court, Alexander de Moraes, highlighted in a general message that despite all this the elections are taking place with great calm, assuring that all the buses only had a check and that they continued on their way, while there were none of them that have been returned and that the right to vote of the people who were in the vehicles is guaranteed.
This, he said, generates some doubt and uncertainty, after a lukewarm response to the questions on social networks about the irregular activities that took place.
Martínez pointed out that the electoral authorities have called to denounce these acts, which will be reviewed and treated as electoral crimes.
For Rafael Soares, professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, he said that access to polling stations, especially in the Amazon, is very difficult, an important issue due to population management.
To this, he said, is added that many times people do not change their electoral address, so displacement for many who are in the northeast is complicated because they must move to central cities.
We are very surprised and very afraid of the impact that may have on the final results. I have the impression that we are going to have an idea of the impact by the number of abstentions”.
«The question is, how many groups did not pass after the checkpoints? We are in a twilight, it is very difficult to be certain of the number of people who could not vote for this issue.
He added that there were cases in big cities that the main roads had many blockades by the police without making it clear why. “I have people who informed me that it took almost two or three hours to get to their polling place. We are in a very complex situation."
This article was produced with the support of the organization Global Exchange in collaboration with Peninsula 360 Press.
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