Brazil’s Bolsonaro criticizes Supreme Court members for coordinating rejection of printed ballot

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro criticized Thursday three Justices of the Supreme Court (STF) for coordinatng the rejection of the proposed constitutional amendment (PEC) being considered by the Chamber of Deputies that provides for the printing of voting receipt from electronic ballot boxes.

“There is a coordination of three Justices of the Supreme Court not to have an auditable vote. If they do not want this, they will have to come up with a way to have clean elections. Otherwise, we will have problems next year,” he said.

“The auditable vote will make sure who the people vote for will be elected. There could be fraud, and it won’t just be for the president, it will be for governors, senators.”

The Supreme Court said it would not comment on the statements of the Brazilian head of state.

According to the president, if Congress enacts the proposed amendment to the Constitution, “there will be printed ballots” in next year’s election.

The three STF Justices who are on the 7-judge Superior Electoral Court (TSE) -the electoral court president, Luís Roberto Barroso, Edson Fachin, and Alexandre de Moraes- have already publicly expressed reservations about the proposal of the printed ballot.

Despite Bolsonaro’s speech about the supposed articulation of the TSE, leaders of 11 political parties – among them, some that support the government – have also positioned themselves against the initiative.

DOUBTS ABOUT LULA DA SILVA

In a conversation with supporters broadcast on social networks, Bolsonaro also said he wants “clean elections” and expressed concern that former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – who has appeared as a favorite for the 2022 succession in the polls – got out of jail by decision of the STF to get elected “through fraud”.

“There is no use in coming up with the argument that it is costly, there is money, and money has already been found to buy the printers,” he said.

Bolsonaro said that he would order the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, to arrange resources to implement the printing of the votes from the electronic ballot boxes. The TSE has already estimated the cost of this change at a minimum of R$2 billion (US$400 million).

The Brazilian president claims to be worried regarding the security of electronic voting in Brazil, even though he has been elected to congress several times, and president in 2018, using that system. Despite Bolsonaro’s distrust of the voting system, since the adoption of the electronic ballot box in 1996, no election fraud has ever been proven.