1970-01-01 02:00:00
The 2022 elections were attacked on several fronts, organized against confidence in electronic ballot boxes, voting and election results. Together, they reveal the strategy of a broad anti-democratic front that, if not properly unveiled and held accountable, could again jeopardize future elections.
Investigations have clarified the form and operationalization of attacks against democracy.
Efforts against confidence in the electoral system had a rehearsal in the 2018 elections, when a series of fake news on messaging apps spread lies about ballot boxes that completed votes against Jair Bolsonaro and fraud in ballot papers.
Even with the work of checking agencies, the misinformation was fed and even embraced by part of the political system, which carried out the vote on a proposed amendment to the Constitution to institute the printed vote, whose justification was based on the lack of confidence in the electronic polls.
Despite not having reached the quorum of 3/5 necessary for approval of amendments, the majority of deputies endorsed the proposal.
Former President Bolsonaro himself even spread lies about the polls and was defended “in his freedom of expression” by the Advocacy General of the Union.
The Armed Forces, far from their constitutional mission, placed themselves in the role of guarantors of the elections and, after the result of the second round, issued a dubious note that did not point to fraud or its non-existence, thus fueling conspiracy theories and so many other false news against the polls.
The first and most forceful response to the attacks on the ballot boxes came from the Superior Electoral Court in 2021, when it condemned the then state deputy Fernando Francischini, from Paraná, for abuse of the media by spreading lies against the ballot boxes in 2018.
Then, in 2023, Bolsonaro was convicted and became ineligible for the same reason, when he spoke against the security of electronic voting machines in a meeting with ambassadors.
The other front of attack on the 2022 elections focused on voting.
According to investigations, the Federal Highway Police carried out, with probable approval from the Ministry of Justice, a “targeted policing” in cities in the Northeast to make it difficult for Lula voters to vote.
All of this has been revealed in investigations conducted by the Federal Police, which have not been obstructed by the Attorney General’s Office, within the scope of ongoing investigations at the Federal Supreme Court.
It is also within the scope of ongoing inquiries at the Supreme Court that another front of attacks on the 2022 elections, aimed at the electoral result, has been unveiled. Here, coordinated action relied on chaos and disorder to prevent the sovereignty of the popular will expressed in the ballot boxes from being implemented.
We saw a rehearsal of bombings at an airport and roadblocks perpetuated by the timid reaction of governors and their police. Bolsonaristas camped in front of the Army Headquarters called for a coup and military intervention. This and other groups invaded and destroyed Congress, the Supreme Court and the Planalto.
As it turns out, in the face of the established chaos, an eventual call by the Armed Forces for an operation to Guarantee Law and Order would create space for a coup.
The reaction to the coup came from the top of the elected political system.
It was up to the new government to quell the disorder through federal intervention, with the support of all the newly elected governors, even if some reluctantly (left out, of course, the Federal District). Presidencies of the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate repudiated the chaos.
The Supreme remained in operation, and investigations indicated that the attacks were organized and financed.
The complaints frame the participants in crimes of attempted coup and violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, among others. The surveys also revealed a deliberate omission by security institutions in the Federal District.
In common, these multiple attacks against the 2022 elections expose a worrying participation of different institutions, be it the Ministry of Justice, the Federal Highway Police, political parties, Armed Forces, local police and public advocacy, in an anti-democratic project.
Internal and external control instances failed. The facts also show, it is true, the reaction of actors in the political system, civil society and the Judiciary in favor of democracy.
However, for this reaction to be able to guarantee future, free and fair elections, it is necessary to face, in addition to the individual, personal, responsibility of those involved, the share of responsibility that falls on institutions that embarked, assented or omitted before of attacks.
It is necessary to face the flaws that allowed an anti-democratic project to go so far.
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