The Brazilian Police carry out more than 500 operations to make it difficult to vote in pro-Lula areas

Lula's entourage calls for the immediate arrest of the head of the Federal Traffic Police

The Federal Traffic Police of Brazil (PRF, for its acronym in Portuguese) has carried out at least 560 inspection interventions of vehicles that carried out public transport for voters this Sunday, when the second round of the Brazilian presidential elections is held, in areas considered favorable to the left-wing candidate, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The PRF would thus have failed to comply with an express order of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), according to the internal control data of the PRF itself cited by 'Folha de Sao Paulo'.

The president of the TSE, Alexandre de Moraes, expressly prohibited the PRF from carrying out any operation related to the public transport of voters on Saturday so as not to hinder the vote.

While these operations were being carried out, carried out mainly in the northeast of the country and denounced by the voters themselves on social networks, Moraes has urged the director of the PRF, Silvinei Vasquez, to immediately interrupt the inspection work under the threat of a 100,000 fine. reais per hour (about 18,900 euros), suspension of duties and arrest.

Vasques himself published a post on Instagram on Saturday night in support of Bolsonaro that he later deleted. "Vote 22. Bolsonaro president," read the text.

According to Globo TV's count, up to 272 of the first 549 operations (49.5 percent) correspond to the northeast of the country, considered a stronghold of Lula. 59 were in the north (10.7 percent), 48 in the southeast (8.4 percent), and 48 in the south (8.74 percent).

The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Anderson Torres, has expressed to the Federal Supreme Court his "perplexity" over the information about the actions of the PRF to "use the state machine to cause damage to the electoral process."

The Brazil of Hope coalition that represents Lula has also responded to the controversy and has called for the arrest of Vasques and the regional superintendents who are not complying with the order of the Superior Electoral Court.

For her part, the president of Lula's Workers' Party, Gleisi Hoffmann, has urged the political officials of the PT to appear at the official headquarters to request a prison order against those who fail to comply with the judicial mandate.

ELECTION OBSERVERS

National and international electoral observers have also expressed "great concern" over the complaints about the intervention of the PRF, according to sources on condition of anonymity quoted by 'Folha'.

The Carter Center, the Organization of American States and Electoral Transparency Brazil participate in this process with electoral observation missions, but due to the very nature of the mission they cannot make a statement until the polls close.

A person in charge of the Carter Center has warned that they are "practices that suppose a change in the rules and operations in the middle of a voting process." "They are totally outside the international standards of electoral transparency", he has indicated, quoted by 'Folha'.

For her part, the general coordinator of Electoral Transparency Brazil has expressed her concern about the information disseminated and has indicated that she is carefully reviewing what happened.