The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) is receiving input on improving the 2024 election rules

The Superior Electoral Court has received over 900 suggestions from civil society and political parties on draft resolutions for the elections

TSE (Tribunal Superior Eleitoral) lacra sistemas eleitorais (Foto: José Cruz / Agência Brasil)

In January, the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) received input on how to improve resolutions for the 2024 municipal elections. In total, 945 proposals for the 10 drafts that have been drawn up by the Court were submitted by civil society organisations and political parties. 

After the deadline for receiving suggestions on 23, 24 and 25 January, the TSE held public meetings to address input for the resolutions on the following themes: electoral research, auditing and inspections, electoral systems and general acts of the electoral process, candidate registration, special campaign financing fund and financial reporting, campaigning, representations and complaints, and electoral offences. The majority of the suggestions (388) referred to protocol for campaigning. 

The matters addressed during the public meetings were: 

• 23/01/2024: electoral research, auditing and inspections, electoral systems, general acts of the electoral process.
• 24/01/2024: candidate registration, special campaign financing fund, financial reporting.
• 25/01/2024: campaigning, representations and complaints and electoral offences.

Conectas was among the organisations that provided input for the draft resolution on electoral campaigning.  The points suggested were as follows:

• Definition of the pre-campaign period, as provisions adopted regarding the boosting of political-electoral content during the campaign should also apply in the period preceding the electoral period;
• Transparency in the hiring of boosting services during the pre-campaign and campaign periods. Digital platforms must keep records of advertising, with information about services purchased, such as those responsible for the purchase and the audience that was targeted and reached.
• Establishment of a public record containing decisions on content removal by the Superior Electoral Court, with a view to ensuring transparency in the process and, above all, the right to file complaints directly with the Court when the exercise of policing powers contravenes established rules.
• Rules for the use of artificial intelligence and a proposal to prohibit the use of tools that produce deep fakes;
• Standardisation and adoption of the term “facts knowingly untrue or seriously taken out of context,” as present in previous resolutions of the Court, replacing the word “misinformation”.