Head of Electoral Court Meets With Lula and Flávio Campaigns

TSE President Kassio Nunes Marques convenes representatives from both presidential camps to address rising judicial clashes and digital media disputes ahead of the runoff election.
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Titular del Tribunal Electoral se reúne con campañas de Lula y Flávio

Titular del Tribunal Electoral se reúne con campañas de Lula y Flávio

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The meeting, scheduled for 3:30 p.m. local time, seeks to address the conduct of the candidacies of the Brazilian president and the senator in the final phase of the presidential contest, whose runoff is scheduled for October 25.

The summons comes after a succession of decisions and appeals before the Electoral Court regarding publications and digital tools used by the two presidential candidates, in a campaign marked by cross-accusations of disinformation.

One of the most recent episodes was the suspension of the WhatsApp channel Exército do Lula, coordinated by deputy André Janones, which at the time of writing this note had more than 4.1 million followers.

On Sunday, Nunes Marques ordered the channel's operation to be interrupted following a request from the Flávio Bolsonaro campaign of the Liberal Party, which accused it of spreading false news against its candidate.

Hours later, electoral general-corregidor Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva reversed the measure and restored access, with a prohibition on republishing content previously vetoed by the court.

Cueva argued that the matter was already under analysis by the corregidoria and that the evidence presented did not then justify the complete suspension of the channel. He also referred the case to the TSE plenary, which still has no scheduled date to examine it.

On Monday, at Nunes Marques's request, the court's technical team presented a report on the tool and said it had not found content previously declared false by the court.

The removal of previous publications, the analysis noted, made it difficult to reconstruct the entire history.

This controversy adds to other judicial confrontations between the candidacies, which have turned to the court to request the removal of publications, question advertising, and denounce alleged irregularities in the use of digital platforms.

Tuesday's meeting will thus unfold in a scenario of institutional tension over the limits of electoral advertising, the circulation of information on social networks, and the attributions of the different members of Brazil's highest electoral authority. It will also take place in a context in which, according to what Folha de S.Paulo reported yesterday, TSE ministers question Nunes Marques's decisions that they consider favorable to Flávio Bolsonaro and harmful to Lula.

Among them are the June suspension of the dissemination of a poll showing a drop in the senator's voting intentions, as well as interruptions of virtual trials in which a majority favorable to the president had already formed.

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