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On Wednesday (26/10), Superior Electoral Court President (TSE) Alexandre de Moraes decided to reject the action presented by the campaign of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) about an alleged boycott of radios in the broadcasting of his electoral propaganda. Moraes said that Bolsonaro’s action has no evidence and is based on a survey by a company “not specialized in auditing”. The minister pointed out the possible “commitment of an electoral crime.
The Case
On Monday (24/10), President Jair Bolsonaro had asked the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to suspend Lula’s electoral propaganda on radio stations across the country on the grounds that broadcasters would be failing to broadcast the campaign ads for his reelection in the Northeast.
The Radios’ Response
The radio stations point to discrepancies between the number and times of insertions identified by the company Audiency, hired by the Bolsonaro campaign, and what was actually broadcast. They claim that they have the recordings of the days mentioned in the report and that they are available to be questioned by the authorities. At least 6 of the 8 radio stations mentioned by the campaign contested the data presented by the Bolsonaros’s campaign.
Limited System
The report presented by the campaign of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), is based on a system that does not capture the direct radio signal and may not catch all the ads. The monitoring system used captures the signal from online radios, not the original broadcast. Companies are not required to broadcast political pieces in the online broadcast. The system identifies the audio excerpts that are manually registered by the company. If there is a failure or error in the registration, he is not able to monitor. The monitoring can be affected by signal or retransmission failures.
Electoral Crime
The minister pointed out the possible “commitment of an electoral crime. with the purpose of disrupting the second round of the election in its last week” and sent the case to be evaluated within the investigation of the “digital militias”, which is reported by himself in the STF (Supremo Federal Court).
Third Round?
Political commentators and Bolsonaro critics believe that this case was an attempt by the campaign to obtain a “new fact” and shake the elections in its last week, attempting to gain votes and reverse Bolsonaro’s position on the polls – most results have indicated that he will lose the elections. Furthermore, by claiming that his campaign was damaged by an inferior number of ads, he could pave his way to a third round.
