The electoral campaign for mayors and councilors has registered 319 complaints of electoral harassment as of this Thursday (19). The number is more than four times the total for 2022, when 68 accusations were registered in the first round of the elections.
The data comes from the Public Ministry of Labor (MPT). Of the more than 300 complaints, 265 are individual, that is, there was no repetition of the complaint.
Despite the higher number of cases in the first round, the Attorney General of Labor, José de Lima Ramos Pereira, does not believe that the current municipal elections will surpass the total of the 2022 general elections, which after the second round totaled 3,606 complaints.
“We have the first round with more complaints, but I don’t believe that the second round will have the same speed as the second round of the previous election. The atmosphere of that moment is not there, the polarization will not increase”, assesses the prosecutor.
For him, what drew attention in the 2022 elections was the volume of cases and the explicit and documented form of harassment. “There were videos that I watched and said ‘I can’t believe someone did that’. It’s a case study,” says Ramos Pereira.
Electoral harassment is characterized as the practice of coercion, intimidation, threats, humiliation or embarrassment associated with an electoral contest, with the objective of influencing or manipulating the vote, support, orientation or political manifestation of workers in the workplace or in work-related situations.
Occurrences
Different types of harassment were listed by the MPT. There are occurrences in all states, with the exception of Amapá. The states of Bahia, São Paulo, Paraíba, Goiás and Minas Gerais lead the list of harassment reports, with 45, 40, 22, 20 and 19 cases respectively.
For the prosecutor, the numbers show that in these regions political passions are stronger and disputes can be tighter. “Harassment happens a lot because of social vulnerability,” he adds.
The MPT passed on to Brazil Agency the description of some episodes of electoral harassment. For example, there is the case of the owner of a men’s clothing factory in the municipality of Jardim de Piranhas, in the interior of Rio Grande do Norte, who asked his employees to record a video stating that they would vote for certain candidates for mayor and councilor.
More than three thousand kilometers from Rio Grande do Norte, in Indianópolis, in the northwest of Paraná, the harassment came from the mayor himself, who threatened to terminate contracts with employees and suppliers of the municipality who did not put stickers of his candidacy on their cars.
In Pedro Leopoldo, 40 kilometers from Belo Horizonte (MG), the MPT found another type of harassment: one of the partners of a company that offers purification and regeneration services for lubricating oils took a mayoral candidate to the workplace during working hours to present his proposals and record an electoral campaign piece.
Despite the electoral crime being documented, the company refused to sign the conduct adjustment agreement (TAC) with the Public Prosecutor’s Office. As a result, the MPT filed a complaint with the Labor Court, which ordered the company to comply with its obligations to “refrain from promoting, on company premises and during working hours, any political-partisan or electoral event, under penalty of a fine of R$20,000 per event or violation, plus R$1,000 for each employee who participates,” according to a note from the MPT.
Legislation
According to the law, anyone accused of electoral harassment in the workplace may be summoned by the MPT to present explanations and, if applicable, sign a TAC. This term will provide for collective social damages to be paid to society, in addition to individual moral damages to be paid to the harassed workers.
The harasser must also make a retraction through the same means that he harassed employees, workers or service providers. If the company receives any public funding, the credit may be canceled.
In addition to the MPT, the Electoral Public Prosecutor’s Office carries out criminal investigations. In these cases, arrest usually occurs when the accused fails to comply with a preliminary injunction or court ruling.
Complaints can be made by website of the Ministry of Labor.
List of cases of electoral harassment, by Arte/MPT
