Bragança candidate calls for annulment of elections

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The independent movement Pela Nossa Terra Bragança, candidate in the local elections of October 12, filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court, due to alleged illegalities in the electoral act, and requests the annulment of the results, said, this Tuesday, the campaign director.

Fernando Almeida explained to Lusa that one of the reasons for challenging the elections was that the candidate's symbol was not on the ballot papers.

When the lists were approved by the Bragança Court, the movement realized that the candidate's symbol had not been sent by the court to the municipality to be included on the ballot paper.

He filed a complaint and was vindicated. That day, a court source told Lusa that the issue was being resolved and that the candidacy symbol had been sent to the municipality for inclusion on the ballot papers.

The National Elections Commission told Lusa that it was contacted by the municipality about this situation and that, since the council informed it that the ballots were already printed, for early voting, it recommended keeping them that way, without the symbol of the independent movement.

Thus, on election day, the ballots did not contain the independent movement's symbol. "The city council ultimately failed to comply with the court order," criticized Fernando Almeida, noting that they were "harmed."

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"Everyone has a symbol, we have the right to have a symbol. It's not the council, nor anyone else, that can take away the right granted to us by law," said mayoral candidate Manuel Vitorino.

Another illegality, pointed out by the campaign director, is that the ballots posted next to the polling station, in several parishes in the municipality of Bragança, have the name of the movement covered or are crossed out with the word "rejected", with regard to the vote in the municipal assembly.

"I was at a table, I was a delegate in Gondesende, and I questioned the president, and the message she conveyed was that our candidacy was out of the running," said Fernando Almeida, adding that when they announced their candidacy, they included the city council and the assembly.

The independent movement had submitted a list to the Bragança municipal assembly, but it was ultimately rejected by the court because the candidates' professions were missing, according to mayoral candidate Manuel Vitorino. However, he argued that the posted ballots didn't need to be crossed out, which would be illegal.

On election day, the municipality of Bragança issued a circular to parish councils, which Lusa has seen. "This letter informs Your Excellency that rejected candidacies for the local elections continue to appear on the ballot papers. Therefore, the National Elections Commission (CNE) recommends that polling stations communicate this information to voters (...). Given this situation, and as occurs in other elections, the CNE recommends that, in polling stations where this occurs, information be placed next to the large-format (A3) ballot paper, clearly visible to voters about the candidacies that are not running because they were rejected," it reads.

Lusa contacted the CNE, which clarified that, in fact, when rejected candidacies appear on the ballot papers, because they have already been printed, a notice must be posted informing them that they have been rejected.

However, regarding the bulletins posted being crossed out, the CNE states that “the commission did not give this indication”.

In the complaint filed with the Constitutional Court, the Pela Nossa Terra Bragança movement emphasizes that “these behaviors constitute an irremediable nullity of the electoral act, requiring the annulment of the results and the repetition of the vote, guaranteeing equal treatment between all candidates.”

Lusa attempted to contact the municipality of Bragança, but was unable to obtain any clarification.