Police accused of suppressing Lula vote in Brazil election
By Anthony Faiola and Gabriela Sá Pessoa Updated October 30, 2022 at 8:26 p.m. EDT|Published October 30, 2022 at 5:15 p.m. EDT
Members of Brazil's Federal Highway Police at the agency's headquarters in Brasilia on Friday. (Adriano Machado/Reuters)
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s most bitterly fought election since the collapse of the military dictatorship descended Sunday into allegations of police attempting to suppress the vote in regions supportive of presidential challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The Federal Highway Police, an organization closely allied with the right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, allegedly set up roadblocks to delay voters in the country’s impoverished northeast and other centers of support for Lula, a former president. Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court said Sunday night that Lula had received about 51 percent of the vote, defeating Bolsonaro.
Silvinei Vasques, director of the highway police, earlier posted a call to vote for Bolsonaro on Instagram, according to the newspaper O Globo. It was later deleted. Sen. Randolfe Rodrigues, a Lula supporter, demanded his immediate arrest. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, Brazil’s chief electoral authority, ordered Vasques to stop the operations immediately or face personal fines of nearly $100,000 per hour.
Conspiracy clots blame millions of fraudulent vote for Bolsonaro;s loss. Evidence-free conspiracies are easily transported over borders these days. There is no doubt the Wapo article above is a much more fact-based look at that election.
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