Minister who will preside or Superior Electoral Court (TSE) in next year’s elections, Alexandre de Moraes he said he will not tolerate the repetition of the practice of disseminating false news in the 2022 election and warned that the conduct, if it occurs, could lead to the arrest of those involved and the revocation of the registration of the candidacy of those involved.
“If there is a repetition, if there is a repetition of what was done in 2018, the registration will be revoked and the people who do so will go to jail for attacking the elections and democracy in the Brazil“, Moraes said on Thursday, during the TSE trial of actions against the winning ticket in the last presidential election, Jair Bolsonaro–Hamilton Mourao.
Moraes stated that it is “notorious” that the practice took place in the elections of 2018, but there was not enough evidence to cancel the Bolsonaro-Mourão plate.
“Justice is blind, but it is not foolish. We cannot in any way create an ostrich precedent. Everyone knows the mechanism used in the elections”, he said.
“It is one thing whether there is specific proof of imputation. You can’t create an ostrich precedent that nothing happened, it’s a notorious fact”, he added.
In addition to heading the TSE in the 2022 election, Moraes is also rapporteur at the Federal Supreme Court (STF) of sensitive investigations for President Jair Bolsonaro and his allies. Two of them – fake news inquiries and anti-democratic acts – had evidence shared with the actions judged by the TSE this week.
The magistrate is the main target of Bolsonaro’s criticism at the top of the Judiciary. The president even asked for his impeachment to the Senate, but the president of the House, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), rejected the request.
no surprise
The STF minister said that the Electoral Justice and the entire Judiciary Power will no longer be taken by surprise with the action of what he called digital militias.
“Justice learned, did their homework, the electoral justice prepared and this judgment makes that very clear. We already know how the mechanisms are”, he stated.
“We are not going to admit that these digital militias try again to destabilize the elections, the democratic institutions, from spurious and undeclared funding”, he reinforced, citing that businessmen after financing this scheme obtained advantages in the current government. “There is no free lunch”, he summarized.
By highlighting the role of social networks, Moraes stated that the WhatsApp is the primary source of information and said that the strength of the messages passed daily by voters by the app in relation to television cannot be compared.
The TSE minister said people linked to the former US president’s campaign Donald Trump were imported to Brazil and brought a “bad teaching”, but did not go into details.
“This judgment is very important because we cannot create a precedent, we are not going to pass up a cloth because these digital militias are still preparing to spread hatred, conspiracy, fear, influence elections, destroy democracy and it is not just in Brazil”, he warned .
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