A total of 2,618 electoral crimes and 515 arrests, of which 22 are of candidates, have been recorded so far by security agencies in the first round of the municipal elections held this Sunday in Brazil.
The data appear in a partial bulletin containing information generated by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, which clarifies how there were 1,57 notifications of ballot box stuffing and 423 of vote buying or electoral corruption.
The balance includes 309 cases of irregular electoral propaganda, 203 of violation or attempted violation of the secrecy of the vote and 64 of disobedience to orders of the Electoral Justice.
More than 520,000 reais (just over 96,000 dollars) were confiscated and 47 vehicles identified as having been used for the irregular transport of voters were seized, as well as 28 firearms.
The information was compiled by the National Integrated Command and Control Centre, based in the capital, which is made up of security agencies under the coordination of the Ministry of Justice.
Teams are from the Federal and Federal Highway Police, and the National Public Security Force, in addition to other authorities.
It is expected that the final balance will be released on Monday when the statistics will be completed by all state agencies.
Some 156 million Brazilians were eligible to vote for mayors, deputy mayors and councillors in the country’s 5,569 municipalities.
Such elections are crucial because they allow citizens to directly influence local policies and issues affecting their communities such as transport, health and education.
They are also seen as a political thermometer to measure party support ahead of the presidential election scheduled for 2026.
The mayor of Sao Paulo, Ricardo Nunes, backed by the ultra-right-wing former president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), will seek re-election on 27 October in the ballot against Congressman Guilherme Boulos, a candidate backed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Meanwhile, the current mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, was re-elected for a fourth term in office after winning an absolute majority of the votes.
Paes easily beat his main contender, Alexandre Ramagem, former director of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency during Bolsonaro’s term in office.
The head of the Superior Electoral Court, Carmen Lúcia Antunes, welcomed the calmness with which society went to the polls and noted, only as a cause for concern, an abstention rate of 21.71 percent on average, despite the fact that voting is compulsory in the South American giant.
