In the name of God? Election for president of the evangelical bench is marked by lowliness and inconsistency in the number of votes. With accusations exchanged among its members and threats of judicialization, the election got nowhere and was annulled. Silas Câmara (Republicanos-AM) disputed the leadership against Eli Borges (PL-TO)
Silas Câmara, one of the names running for the presidency of the evangelical group in Congress. In the background, former president Jair Bolsonaro
The evangelical group in the National Congress postponed the election of its new president, after finding inconsistencies in the number of votes. Since the creation of the Evangelical Parliamentary Front, in 2003, the president was chosen by agreement, without the need for a nominal vote. This year, however, it was different.
In the election, the number of votes differed from the number of parliamentarians present and some deputies managed to vote without registering. Given this scenario, the dispute between Silas Câmara (Republicanos-AM) and Eli Borges (PL-TO) was postponed by decision of former leader Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-RJ). The information was released by Folha de S.Paulo.
“Our system, due to internet problems, has several crashes and that is why we had problems on our list [de membros da bancada evangélica]. We had some who, because they thought the name was on the list, cast their votes. As a result, my decision was to nullify the election at that time and call a new meeting for the second half of February,” said Cavalcante.
The resolution only took place after four hours of discussion among members of the Front. The first measure was to hold, for the first time, a ballot box. Unsuccessfully, they suggested alternation in the leadership of the bench between Câmara and Borges — a proposal rejected by Borges, who promised judicialization if the election was not annulled.
It is estimated that the bench for this legislature will have 132 deputies (26% of the Chamber) and 14 senators (17%). The current front brought together 187 deputies and 30 signatory senators. Not all are right-wing evangelicals, as the presence of congresswoman Benedita da Silva (PT-RJ) demonstrates.
In the new Congress, Bolsonarist Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) and deputies Clarissa Tércio (PP-PE), Sílvia Waiãpi (PL-AP) and André Fernandes (PL-CE) are included in the composition of the Front — investigated for encouraging the invasion to the Three Powers.
The mess in the election of the evangelical bench had repercussions on the networks. “Look, these same people who complain about the Brazilian electoral system, who without any evidence talk about fraud at the polls, they cannot hold an election without fraud involving a small electoral college, with less than 200 people. Meanwhile, the TSE holds clean elections with 156 million voters. These scoundrels accuse others of what they themselves are: fraudsters.”
