The announcement that polling was to be extended by two hours did not reach all polling stations in time. Polling stations were closed and the count went ahead in many places, whilst other polling stations remained open. Nothing like this has ever happened before.
The decision to extend voting was delayed for several hours. Bus disruption in various parts of the country gave the PT’s election campaign team a pretext to submit requests for an extension at both 13:00 and 15:00 local time.
In principle, it is not possible to reopen the electronic ballot boxes once they have been closed.
– But it would be possible, in theory, to continue with manual counting, explains lawyer Wallace Corbo, according to O Globo.
Delay in the decision
Both the National Electoral Court and the country’s Supreme Court have been involved in the decision, and when Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin received the case, he is said to have delayed forwarding it to the judge who made the decision, Christiano Zanin.
– The decision was announced just as the count was about to begin, reports commentator Miriam Leitão in O Globo. She believes the situation “creates a huge climate of uncertainty surrounding this election”.
According to the Supreme Court, the best solution to the dilemma was to suspend the count, allowing ballot boxes that are open to remain open, and those that are closed to remain closed.
At 7 pm local time (11 pm Norwegian time), the full count of the votes was due to resume. However, statements from several judges involved in the case confirm that those constituencies that had already closed could continue to count the votes as normal.
The political influencer, YouTuber and Member of Congress Nikolas Ferreira (30) from the state of Minas Gerais is among those who have spoken out strongly against the irregularities.
In a video on X that, according to Ferreira, the only person who stands to gain from an extension of the voting period is the candidate who was trailing – namely Lula.
“All opinion polls, including Datafolha’s, have shown that Bolsonaro is in the lead,” he says in the clip.
