The Brazilian Supreme Court justice who chairs the country’s election authority on Sunday ordered the head of the federal highway police department to answer widespread allegations his cops were gaming the election for fascist President Jair Bolsonaro by stopping buses driving voters to polling places in regions that heavily support his rival Luiz Lula, the New York Times reports.
Dozens of reports and images circulated on social media showed cops stopping people for questioning and setting up roadblocks across Brail’s northeast, a stronghold of support for the leftist former President Lula. Just for comparison, during the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, October 2nd, the patrol conducted 300 stops of buses on Brazil’s federal highways.
This Sunday, during the runoff, that number nearly doubled to 550 stops recorded, a source within the federal highway police that had access to real-time data told the Times on the condition of anonymity. Further raising alarms is the fact that the highway patrol chief, used his official Instagram account to urge people to vote for the far right incumbent. What a fucking asshole.