The president of Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court, Judge Kassio Nunes Marques, stated Sunday (Oct. 4) that no irregularities were found in the first round of the elections that could be characterized as foreign interference in the election.

At a press conference aimed at presenting an overview of the Electoral Court’s work on election day, he said that international observers who monitored the election confirmed its transparency and that it proceeded normally.

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“We did not experience any serious incidents, the weather-related risks [were] ruled out, and we did not receive any alerts from the various departments of the Superior Electoral Court regarding foreign interference. We did not find any evidence of intervention,” he stated.

Earlier, Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues confirmed that the body had opened an investigation into alleged foreign interference in the election.

Last week, the country’s Attorney-General’s Office called on the Federal Police and the Prosecutor-General’s Office to investigate alleged funding from the Donald Trump administration to meddle with the Brazilian elections and delegitimize the Supreme Court.

The move was unveiled after the UK newspaper The Guardian reported that the US government had allocated USD 1 million to promote a campaign against the Brazilian top court.

The president of the Superior Electoral Court, Kassio Nunes Marques, said on Sunday (Oct. 4) that he intends to take steps to reduce voter abstention in the second round.

According to the Electoral Court’s vote-tallying system, 21.08 percent of voters abstained in the first round, or 33.4 million people.

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“The idea is to intensify and refine all available mechanisms so that we can reduce this percentage in the second round,” Marques pointed out.

The first round also recorded 2.2 million blank and 3.6 million invalid ballots. Neither is counted among the valid votes.

The electorate totaled 158.7 million eligible voters, while 125 million cast a ballot.

Record high

The abstention rate recorded in the first round was the highest since 1998, when it stood at 21.5 percent.

In the first round of the 2022 presidential election, 20.95 percent of eligible voters did not cast a ballot.