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On Monday (08/08), the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) denied a request from the Defense Ministry Paulo Sérgio Nogueira to access documents related to the two rounds of the 2014 and 2018 elections. The TSE stated that the deadline for requests of this type has already expired. In its response to the Defense, the TSE also said that the institutions that supervise the electoral process do not have the power to analyze past elections, “not fulfilling the role of external control” over the Electoral Justice. The Defense request, signed by Minister Nogueira, required “preparatory technical information about the electoral process”.
Accusations Against the Electoral System
The Defense Ministry, which is part of the electoral commission, has been trying to implement changes in this year’s elections, improve the voting system and to check events from the past ones. These actions take place amid frequent criticisms by President Jair Bolsonaro against the electronic voting machines, Electoral Justice and the electoral system. Even though no evidence of possible irregularities were presented so far, the President and his allies say that the electoral process is prone to frauds and has already been defrauded.
The opposition has been stating that such attitudes have the objective of casting doubts on the electoral system’s reliability.
New Members to the Source Cod Inspection Team
Recently, in another episode that involved the Armed Forces in the preparations for the elections, the Defense Minister asked to inspect the electronic voting machines source code. Then, last week, the Defense Ministry asked the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to include nine more military personnel in the group that inspects the source code. In the letter sent to the TSE, the Defense said that the military indicated have knowledge in programming language and can act in support of the Armed Forces Inspection and Audit Team of the Electronic Voting System.
