The president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Minister Roberto Barroso, opened the Court’s legislative year, which has reached its ninetieth year in activity, with a long speech dedicated mainly to defending the Brazilian electoral system, the security of electronic voting machines and the debate fertile ground for ideas throughout this election year.
Barroso ruled out any possibility of resuming the discussion on the printed vote. “There is no point in resuming the discussion on the printed vote with manual public counting for the 2022 elections as it circulated again. A setback that already haunted the country last year and that every now and then is resurrected”, he recalled that the Congress buried the discussion of matter and the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the impression of the vote.
“Resuming this discussion would only constitute a deliberate attempt to disrupt the electoral process. The country needs, in the midst of many things, debates on ideas and not repetition of nonsense”, said Barroso.
Praise for Portugal
He told about his impressions, all very positive, of the trip he made to Portugal to follow the parliamentary elections in that country. Barroso classified the election in the European country as “a show of organization and democracy”, praised the attitude of voters and all parties involved, who accepted the final result. “Everyone accepted the result with civility and with respect to the winners. No baseless accusations of fraud, no rudeness.”
According to him, the electoral environment was paved with “quality public debate”, without hatred and the dissemination of disinformation. Just over 5 million voters went to the polls in the country. “There, therefore, they didn’t have to, because they didn’t have the problems, to make the innovations and evolutions that we made here to eliminate, as we did, the fraud.”
reviews
Barroso criticized President Jair Bolsonaro. An investigation was opened to investigate the alleged leak, by Bolsonaro, of confidential information about the investigation by the Federal Police (PF) that investigates a terrorist attack. hackers to the computer system of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) in 2018. At the time, the TSE declared that the attack did not compromise the security of the vote.
Bolsonaro’s testimony regarding the case was expected last week, but the president did not appear before the Federal Police to testify.
“The President of the Republic leaked the internal structure of TI [tecnologia da informação] of the TSE. We had to take a number of steps to strengthen the cybersecurity of our systems to protect ourselves. Adjectives are lacking to qualify the deliberate attitude of facilitating the exposure of the Brazilian electoral process to attacks by criminals”.
During the process involving the president, the Attorney General’s Office (AGU) argued in the inquiry that Bolsonaro did not disclose confidential documents and “declined to hear personally”. According to the agency, the personal testimony would not contribute to the process. In addition, he highlighted that previous decisions of the Court prevent the coercive conduct for deposition and guarantee the “right of absence” of the defense.
new urns
Barroso pointed out, on several occasions, the security and inviolability of the electronic voting machine. He stated that political parties and qualified entities have already had access to the source code of the electronic voting machine, one of the steps to ensure transparency and digital security of the elections. The security test stage has also been carried out this year. In it, qualified institutions and individuals prepare and carry out attacks on electronic voting machines and the system in search of breaches.
The President of the Court announced the purchase of 300,000 new electronic voting machines and revealed the TSE’s difficulty in completing this process. “There was a big dispute in the international market for these parts and we need to make a diplomatic effort to obtain the equipment. There were months of tension and negotiation.” According to him, the big obstacle was the resistance of the automobile sector, which has been buying all the components produced lately.
Barroso participated in the opening session of the year of the Washington court, in the United States. He is there to receive the final report from the Organization of American States (OAS) on the last Brazilian elections. Barroso said he will release the contents of the report as soon as he receives it.
He leaves the presidency of the TSE this month, giving way to minister Edson Fachin. He will lead a large part of the preparation process for the elections, but they will already take place under the presidency of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who will assume the post in August.
