due to divergence in votes, election of guardianship council is annulled

Belo Horizonte city hall informed through a press conference this Monday (9) that the vote for the guardianship council was cancelled. 53 thousand voters were registered, but only 49 thousand votes were counted. The population of BH must return to the polls on December 3rd for a new election.

The decision came after the Public Defender’s Office of Minas Gerais filed a civil lawsuit with the Children and Adolescents Court pointing out several irregularities, in particular the divergence in the number of votes. The body had already requested the annulment of the election, but the City Hall ignored the request. After the Ombudsman’s Office appealed to the courts, the president of the Electoral Commission Rodrigo Mateus Zacarias recommended that the elections be annulled, which was accepted by Mayor Fuad Noman (PSB).

Relevant problems were presented, such as the use of printed ballots distributed without any control and improvised ballot boxes made of cardboard and Durex, which could be easily tampered with. Lack of records of incidents in the minutes and several inconsistencies of a technical nature were highlighted: candidates who were not listed in the system, voters who did not have their votes counted and others who were unable to vote because they already had a registered vote.

The city of Belo Horizonte did not use the electronic voting machines provided by the Regional Electoral Court. The reason was a municipal law that determines that voter registration must be carried out at the time of voting, in addition to observing the voter’s residence address. As the Electoral Court ballot boxes are offline, they required the prior loading of all voters’ data and, therefore, their use was impossible.

The electronic system chosen fluctuated during the voting period, causing inspectors to look for unusual solutions such as cardboard ballot boxes. Technical problems generated other strains, such as the kilometer-long queues that citizens had to face if they wanted to register to vote. The time in line reached three hours, depending on the electoral college.

The new elections will be held only using paper ballots and with an increase in the number of posts. The city council will also present a bill to the City Council to change the voting procedure.