“As an essential means of restoring and maintaining social peace, it is up to the popularly installed authorities of the Republic to exercise the power that ‘his’ radiates, the prompt observance of all legal and legitimate demands of the population, and the strict observance of allocations and limits of their powers in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Constitution and legislation” (To the institutions and the Brazilian people, official communication of the commanders of the three armed forces, of November 11.11.2022)
Thirteen minutes! It was the time Alexandre de Moraes took to respond to the press conference in which the PL presented its technical report prepared by engineers from the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA), in which they pointed out problems with the electronic ballot boxes before 2020 pointed out and asked about the cancellation of the registered votes in these systems in the second shift. And he did it the usual way: with bias and low politics. Without apparently having had time to perform the only duty that would fall to him as president of the electoral tribunal (since unfortunately there is an electoral tribunal in the country), Moraes decided to pose as a political chess player and tried the plaintiffs through a 24hour Intimidate deadline for recording material also related to the first round of the election campaign. In the context of the total collapse of the rule of law and the absence of the institutions that should protect it, we are no longer surprised that a judge would openly judge one of the parties in a legal dispute for which he is responsible, treating it as a political enemy. This is the “new normal”.
But strangely accustomed to such a dystopian national situation, we urgently need to regain a sense of reality and collective pride to realize that the joke of tropical empire or dark Stalinism has obviously already gone too far. The character in question seems to have believed the flattering fable told by the sycophantic press, who treat him seriously and in a complimentary manner! as sheriff. His inauguration as chairman of the electoral tribunal had imperial overtones and Mussolini grimaces. However, in a republic that claims to be democratic, there are no sheriff judges or imperial judges. In such a republic, the citizen Alexandre de Moraes is equal to the others. Incidentally, as a senior civil servant he should be a little less exposed in the sense of more criticism and demands from society. Above all, its power can only derive from what the constitution provides, without which it loses all legitimacy.
Moraes and the other ministers treated at least half of the voters half who did not sympathize with their candidate with ridicule and resentment. They responded to the longing for transparency with censorship and threats. On security questions, with jokes
But Moraes and his colleagues have long ignored the constitution and acted as possessive masters of the country and the electoral process. Instead of officials committed to the mission of securing the funds for the realization of democracy, they have chosen to impersonate their incarnation. So much so that they were not embarrassed to encroach on the prerogatives of Congress and, who knows why, with such zeal to urge parliamentarians to scrap the verifiable printed voting project, an old social demand. With the pathetic complicity of bloodthirsty journalists, they have spent the last few years repeating the misleading propaganda that “Brazilian electoral system is a source of national pride and an example to the world”. Worse still, they did everything they could to make it the official truth and made a criminal and an enemy of the state anyone who dared question it. Like a Kim Jongun, an Enver Hoxha or a Nicolae Ceaucescu, they demanded nonstop applause for the sacrosanct electronic device of Methuselah’s bar mitzvah days, the golden calf to be venerated by Brazilians. They treated at least half of the voters half who did not sympathize with their candidate, whom they despised, shielded and previously declared victorious with derision and resentment. They responded to the longing for transparency with censorship and threats. On security questions, with jokes. And the mocking attitude throughout the electoral process was summed up by Luís Roberto Barroso’s speech to a citizen who questioned him on the streets of New York, a speech in the language of a Malandro, combined with the attitude of a civil servant, that is, a who, is incompatible Most like to pretend to be the bastion of politeness. “Perdeu, mané” is the symbolic expression of the illegitimacy of an electoral court that behaved like lowland football fans without exception.
Regarding the technical report submitted by the Ministry of Defense a few days ago, the strategy was to openly lie and try to deceive the public about its content, which was simply reversed by the propaganda of the electoral court and the corrupt press, who acted as communications advisors. Just as they had done in 2014 in connection with the audit commissioned by the PSDB, whose conclusion about the system’s nonauditability was similar to that of the Department of Defense, the court and the accompanying press also falsified the contents of the document. “The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) received with satisfaction the final report from the Department of Defense which, like all other regulators, did not indicate the presence of fraud or discrepancies in the electronic ballot box and 2022 election process,” he said in a note to the court after he had sent the report. And the hound press repeated it like a ox.
The problem is that the document said nothing about it, so much so that the next day the Department of Defense was forced to reverse the fake news. In an official statement entitled “Report by the Bundeswehr did not rule out the possibility of fraud or inconsistencies in the electronic ballot boxes”, the ministry informed the public: “To the Court Electoral Superior (TSE) yesterday (9 November) about distortions of content “The Department of Defense made it clear that the detailed work of the team of military technicians inspecting the electronic voting system, although not pointed out, also did not rule out the possibility of fraud or inconsistency in the electronic ballot boxes and in the 2022 process election.”
The note also recalled sensitive points raised in the report: 1. Possible security risk when generating programs for the electronic voting machines due to computer access to the TSE network during compilation of the source code; two. Insufficiency of ballot box functional tests (integrity test and pilot with biometrics) to exclude the possibility of influence of a possible malicious code that can change the functioning of the voting system; and 3. Restrictions on the proper access by technicians to the source code and software libraries developed by third parties, making it impossible to fully understand the execution of the code, which contains more than 17 million lines of programming. And he concluded: “Based on these findings and other obstacles listed in the report, there can be no assurance that the programs that were running in the electronic voting machines are free from malicious insertions that alter their functioning. For this reason, the Ministry of Defense has urged the TSE to carry out a technical study of the operations involved in compiling the source code and to carry out an indepth analysis of the codes that were actually executed in the electronic ballot boxes, for these purposes, a specific commission of renowned technicians of society and technicians representing regulators”.
The report of the highly qualified team hired by the PL resulted from one such technical investigation. The document added to the defense report stops the fallacy of “100% secure system”, “national pride”, “exemplary to the world” and other gimmicks imposed as divine commandments. Given this new context, electoral authorities and their spokespersons cannot simply continue to stigmatize critics and silence doubts. The “perdeu, mané” may be hailed as a glory at the Copacabana Palace convescotes, where the victorious fans themselves referees of the game can taunt their rivals from a safe distance and laugh as they recall the penalties not in their favour team and the unfair exclusion of players from the opposing team. But off the ball, a society in increasing turmoil continues to await answers. A society that seems to be saying, ever louder, boldly and with unshakable conviction: “Enough!”
Content edited by: Marcio Antonio Campos