In the months leading up to the vote,as polls showed him trailing Lula,Bolsonaro pushed for the military to take on an expanded role in the electoral process. The election authority,in a gesture apparently aimed at placating the president,allowed for the armed forces’ unprecedented participation. The report presented on Thursday AEDT was signed by the defence minister and representatives from the army,navy and air force.
The electoral authority said in a statement it “received with satisfaction the Defence Ministry’s final report that,like all other oversight bodies,did not point to the existence of any fraud or inconsistency in the electronic voting machines and 2022 electoral process”.
Bolsonaro didn’t immediately comment on the report,nor did the presidential palace respond to an AP email. His party’s leader said on Tuesday the president would question election results only if the report provided “real” evidence.
Lula,speaking in the capital Brasilia on his first visit since the election,told reporters that the vote was clean and the electronic voting machine system was an achievement.
“No one will believe coup-mongering discourse from someone who lost the elections,” Lula said. “We know that the institutions were attacked by some government authorities.”
Brazil began using an electronic voting system in 1996. Election security experts consider such systems less secure than hand-marked paper ballots because they leave no auditable paper trail. Brazil’s system is,however,closely scrutinised and domestic authorities and international observers have never found evidence of it being exploited to commit fraud. Outside security audits have been done to prevent the system’s software from being surreptitiously altered. In addition,prior to election day,tests are conducted to assure no tampering has occurred.
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The electoral authority said in its statement that it would analyse the ministry’s suggestions. Aranha,the system security professor,said the military’s suggestions to address flaws weren’t specific and would actually make an audit even more difficult.
This year,the armed forces also conducted a partial audit,comparing hundreds of voting stations’ results to the official tally. The idea was first floated by Bolsonaro,who in May said they “will not perform the role of just rubber-stamping the electoral process,or taking part as spectators”.
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The federal government’s accounts watchdog carried out a partial audit similar to that of the military,tallying votes in 604 voting machines across Brazil. It found no discrepancies. Likewise,Brazil’s Bar Association said in a report that it had found nothing that pointed to suspicion of irregularities.
“There are important lessons from all this,” said Paulo Calmon,a political science professor at the University of Brasilia,who continued:“primarily,the idea to formally involve the armed forces in electoral processes is an error that should never be repeated.”
AP