Brazil’s Electoral Court creates Transparency Commission; Military will have a member

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After a harsh statement in reaction to President Jair Bolsonaro’s attacks on the Judiciary and its members, Superior Electoral Court (TSE) Chief Judge Luís Roberto Barroso announced the creation of an Election Transparency Commission to be installed at the Court to monitor every step of the preparatory process for next year’s elections.

Among its members is Army Division General and Cyber-Defense Commander Heber Garcia Portella, appointed by Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto.

Barroso personally approached Braga Netto to request that a military representative be sent to the External Transparency Commission. The Defense Minister was on the platform from which Bolsonaro spoke during the antidemocratic demonstrations over the September 7 holiday, in which the President’s supporters called for “the arrest of Justices Barroso and Moraes” and the adoption of auditable printed ballots, among other demands.

Defense Minister Braga Netto in July this year conditioned the holding of elections in 2022 to the adoption of printed ballots. Nevertheless, his nominee will have free access to TSE resources to help plan the auditing of each stage of the electoral process.

When announcing the members of the Commission, the Electoral Court Chief made a point of stressing that the Armed Forces are historic partners of the Court, both in the development of the electronic ballot box as well as in the logistical support on Election Day.

The Commission was designed by Barroso, along with 3 other measures, to make the electoral process more reliable in the wake of Bolsonaro’s attacks on the electronic ballot box. The plan is to establish a link between the TSE and civil society organizations, thus preventing disruptions and attempts to discredit the elections.

The inspection of the ballot box source code by parties will also be brought forward by 6 months, as will the presence of party inspectors during the process of inserting the programs in the voting device, and the increase of audited ballot boxes on the eve of the election.

Since the 2018 elections, Bolsonaro has claimed, albeit offering no evidence to support it, that the election was rigged and that the same thing could happen in 2022. According to Bolsonaro there was manipulation in the first round result, as he claimed that he had enough votes to keep him from disputing the runoff against Fernando Haddad (PT). However, he has never produced any evidence.

The Commission of which General Portella will be part will also have the support of Senator Antônio Anastasia (PSD-MG), Federal Audit Court (TCU) Judge Benjamin Zimbler, Federal Counselor of the Brazilian Bar Association Luciana Nepomuceno, Federal Police criminal expert Paulo César Herman, and Deputy Electoral Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet Branco.

Among the civil society experts are professors André Luiz de Medeiros (UFPE), Bruno de Carvalho Albertina (USP), and Roberto Alves Galo (UNICAMP), as well as a young researcher from FGV-Rio’s technology center Ana Carolina Dahora, the coordinator of Transparência Brasil Ana Claudia Santana, and the representative of Open Knowledge Brasil Fernanda Campagnucci.

The ordinance signed by Barroso on Thursday, September 8, sets as the Commission’s goals “to increase the transparency and security of all stages of preparation and implementation of the elections;” “to increase the participation of experts, civil society organizations and public institutions in the monitoring and auditing of the electoral process;” and “to contribute to safeguarding the integrity of the electoral process.”

Its members will be tasked with examining the TSE’s plan to increase the electoral process’ transparency and overseeing each step of the electoral systems’ development routine and auditing of the electoral process. In the midst of the crisis between the Powers, the Commission’s members will have free access to the Electoral Justice resources and procedures to hold next year’s elections.

In addition to the Transparency Commission, Barroso also ordered the creation of an Elections Transparency Observatory (OTE), which will include civil society institutions focused on helping the Commission.

Members of this group are “public and private organizations and institutions with notable expertise in the areas of technology, human rights, democracy, and political science interested in contributing to the achievement of the intended goals.”