MP denounces Datafolha researcher’s aggressor – 04/27/2023 – Power

The Public Ministry of the State of São Paulo filed a complaint with the Justice, this Thursday (27), against Rafael Bianchini, accused of assaulting a Datafolha researcher in Ariranha (378 km from the capital of São Paulo).

Bianchini, voter of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), was denounced on charges of bodily injury and the crime of threatening with base motives. On September 20, 2022, before the first round of elections, he threw punches and kicks at the then hired by the research institute.

Prosecutor José Guilherme Silva Augusto reiterated in the request the futile motive for the crimes, since the accused attacked the interviewer for believing that his political inclination and that of the institute were different from his.

If the TJ-SP (São Paulo Court of Justice) accepts the request of the Public Ministry, Bianchini becomes a defendant.

The Datafolha researcher was interviewing another person when Bianchini approached and began to demand, shouting, that he also be heard for the survey. “Only catch Lula” and “tramp” were terms shouted by the Bolsonarist in the middle of the street.

There is standardized training for researchers at the institute, which determines the obligation to avoid people who volunteer for the interview, in order to maintain the randomness of the sample.

The researcher was hit from the back, and the tablet used for the interview was dropped to the ground. Afterwards, he was also attacked by a son of Bianchini.

The attacks were stopped with the action of neighbors. That was when the Bolsonarist came and went from his house, in front of the site, and threatened to attack the researcher with a fishmonger — in this case, he was restrained by his son.

In the complaint, the Public Prosecutor’s Office asked for police assistance in trying to locate Bianchini, on the grounds that there had been a change of address and that it was not possible to identify his whereabouts. A Sheet he also did not locate his defense.

Throughout the electoral campaign, Bolsonaro promoted a series of statements discrediting the electoral polls, which pointed him in second place, behind Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

Datafolha is an independent opinion research institute that belongs to the Folha Group and works with electoral research and statistical surveys for the market. The institute does not conduct election polls for governments or politicians.

The Datafolha methodology provides specific points for conducting the interviews. In case of moving to another point among those mapped, an authorization from the planning team is required.

The institute says that, in national or state surveys, the municipalities that will be part of the survey are drawn first; then, the neighborhoods and points where the interviews will be applied.

Datafolha also uses gender and age proportional quotas according to data obtained from the IBGE and the TSE (Superior Electoral Court).

Other instructions are not to give permission to be filmed and not to use the Datafolha badge while traveling, only while carrying out the interviews.