Bolsonaro says he wants transparency in Brazil’s elections
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said Monday (Jul 18) his government is working to find a “way out” regarding this year’s elections.
“Obviously, we are fighting to come up with a way out of all this. We want a reliable and transparent electoral system in Brazil,” Bolsonaro told heads of diplomatic missions at an event on the electoral process in the country. “We want to correct flaws. We want transparency. We want real democracy,” he added.
In a press release, the Planalto presidential palace underscored that the event aimed to “raise the transparency and security standards” of the elections.
“To the diplomatic representatives in attendance, [the president] underlined his desire to raise the transparency and security standards of the Brazilian electoral process. He emphasized that the priority is to ensure that the will of Brazilians prevails in the elections to be held next October 2,” the statement said.
Also during the event, Bolsonaro criticized Supreme Court Justices Alexandre de Moraes, Edson Fachin, and Luis Roberto Barroso, describing their statements as deplorable.
“Mr. Barroso, as well as Mr. Fachin, have been roaming the world criticizing me, as if I were mounting a coup ahead of the elections. It’s just the opposite. In the US, Barroso held a lecture on how to get rid of a president. He was in the Superior Electoral Court and the Supreme Court. Are you not aware of people on the same posts in other countries who keep talking, giving interviews and lectures with their personal opinions about the government? The opinion of Justice Barroso is deplorable. It’s detrimental to Brazil.”
Judiciary
Following Bolsonaro’s statements, Judge Edson Fachin, head of the country’s Superior Electoral Court, restated that the Brazilian voting system is safe, transparent, and auditable. In an event organized by the Brazilian Bar Association in Paraná state, he said electoral debate has been “flattened out by harmful narratives that seek to dilute the republic as well as constitutional values.”
“We are living through intricate times, marked by the naturalized abuse of language and the lack of civic commitment, whereby consolidated facts are systematically distorted and anti-democracy is sown, allegedly justified by a fabricated state of affairs, anchored in misrepresentations that rise against the seriousness of the justice system and the integrity of national elections. In this path of disinformation, interconnected scenarios are mounted on a stage—and that is in fact what the nation is witnessing today,” he declared.
In a statement, Supreme Court Chief Justice Luís Roberto Barroso stated he is “fulfilling the tiresome duty of restoring the truth in the face of lies repeatedly told.”
“Fulfilling the tiresome duty of restoring the truth in the face of lies repeatedly told, the office of Justice Luís Roberto Barroso states he has never delivered a lecture abroad under the title ‘How to get rid of a president.’ In an event held at the University of Texas, Justice Barroso’s lecture was on authoritarian populism, democratic resistance, and the role of Supreme Courts.” The lecture is available publicly, he went on to note, in both text and video.
Discussed at the event, Justice Barroso’s office listed, were such topics as the separation of branches, semi-presidential systems, the role of the courts, and impeachment. “As some of the papers presented were effectively about mechanisms to remove presidents from office in Latin America, the students who organized the event dubbed it ‘Ditching a President: Constitutional Design of the Executive Branch in Latin America.’ None of the speakers went as far as to mention the subject of a possible impeachment of the current president of Brazil,” the text concludes saying.
Legislative
Brazil’s lower house speaker Rodrigo Pacheco wrote on his social media. A strong democracy, he argued, is built with respect for the opposition, regardless of what the outcome may be.
“The security of voting machines and the integrity of the electoral process must no longer be put in doubt. There is no ground for this. This questioning is bad for Brazil in all aspects. The National Congress, whose members were elected by the current electoral system, has the obligation to assure the people that the voting machines will bring to the country the accurate outcome of the will of the people, whatever it may be,” he said.
