The Organization of American States (OAS) Electoral Observation Mission recorded that the Brazilian election would have been marked by “international political activism,” stating that statements by foreign heads of state went as far as including insults directed at one of the candidates.
The conclusions are in the preliminary report released last Tuesday (the 6th), which also notes that the voting in the first round was peaceful.
“As has already been observed by the OAS MOEs on other occasions, there is an increasingly frequent trend of heads of state making public statements about electoral processes underway in other countries on the continent,” the text says.
For the mission, “the elections in Brazil were not exempt from this international political activism and, indeed, in this specific case, this activism reached the extreme of insulting one of the candidates.”
The document does not name the authors of the statements nor the candidate targeted. According to the mission, representatives of parties and civil society reported concern about statements and actions by foreign actors during the campaign.
Government officials attribute to Presidents Donald Trump (United States) and Javier Milei (Argentina) movements in favor of Flávio Bolsonaro, who is contesting the presidency against Lula (PT). At the end of September, PT asked the Supreme Federal Court (STF) to open an investigation into alleged foreign interference in the elections.
The mission labeled as “particularly worrisome” the circulation of false information about the election and baseless attacks on the electoral system. According to the text, the weeks ahead of the vote saw a mass dissemination of false content.
Led by former OAS Secretary-General and former Chilean foreign minister José Miguel Insulza, the mission gathered 91 observers from 23 nationalities in 20 states and the Federal District. The team returns to the country to monitor the second round of the presidential election, scheduled for October 25.
