Judge Maintains Suspension of Disclosure of Datafolha Investigation at the Request of Celso Russomanno | 2020 elections in São Paulo

A day earlier, the judge had accepted the coalition of candidate Celso Russomanno (Republicans), who is running for the São Paulo elections with the support of President Jair Bolsonaro (no party). Datafolha will appeal to the São Paulo Regional Electoral Tribunal (TRE).

In this Wednesday’s decision, which analyzed Datafolha’s appeal, Judge Marco Vargas, of the 1st Electoral Zone of São Paulo, pointed out aspects that would not be complying with the law, such as “the lack of consideration of those interviewed in the economic, irregular fusion of strata in terms of the level of studies of the interviewees and biased simulation of the second round in the absence of simulations without the presence of the re-election candidate Bruno Covas ”.

“Although the survey was registered with the necessary progress, the application did not contain all the information required by the electoral legislation, since it was not in relation to the sampling and definition plan in terms of the percentage of the economic level of the interviewees, a circumstance that leads to the conclusion that they were not The criteria established for the act of registering the electoral survey are obeyed, in accordance with article 2 of TSE Resolution No. 23.600 / 2019 “.

In the request, Russomanno’s campaign claimed that the uprising was “in disagreement with electoral legislation and jurisprudence.”

Russomanno was on the decline in the latest institute polls. On the last day 5, the published Datafolha poll revealed that he had 16% of the voting intentions. In the previous one it had 20% and in the first survey 25%.

The compilation of the investigation, ordered by the newspaper “Folha de S.Paulo” and by TV Globo, would take place between November 9 and 10 and its publication was scheduled for this Wednesday (11).

In the lawsuit filed by the Coalition of the Alliance for São Paulo (Republicans and PTB), Russomanno’s campaign affirms that the survey should be suspended because “there is no weighting of the interviewees in terms of economic level” and “digital signature or certification of the statistician responsible for the investigation “.

In addition, the campaign cites “irregular fusion of strata regarding the level of education of the interviewees – how to add elementary and secondary levels” and “biased simulation of the second round in the absence of simulations without the presence of the reelected Bruno Covas.”

In a note, the National Association of Journalists (ANJ) lamented what it called “judicial censorship.” “ANJ protests against the decision and hopes that it will be quickly revoked, since access to the information contained in the survey is a right of all citizens, especially São Paulo voters,” says the text. (read the full text below)

According to Alessandro Janoni, Datafolha research director, the institute uses as a reference in the 2020 elections the same variables of sample planning and data weighting that for more than 35 years dictates the monitoring of the elections in the city of São Paulo, with the objective of representing all strata of the São Paulo electorate.

“A request to challenge the disclosure is astonishing and worrying just now that the candidate requesting censorship presents a drop in voting intentions. It is an attack on the right of the voter to be informed, an anti-democratic action,” Janoni said in an interview with Folha de S.Paulo “.

In the latest polls conducted by the institute, Russomanno seemed to fall for voting intentions. In the poll published last Thursday (5), the Republican candidate had lost 4 percentage points compared to the previous poll, on October 22. (see video below).

“The National Association of Newspapers (ANJ) regrets another case of judicial censorship, now against the disclosure of the electoral investigation carried out by Datafolha on the election in the city of São Paulo. The investigation uses the same parameters for more than 35 years applied in the elections in São Paulo, but even so the Electoral Justice considered that it may be in disagreement with the legislation.

ANJ protests the decision and hopes that it will be quickly reversed, since access to the information contained in the survey is a right of all citizens, especially São Paulo voters.

Election boxes are fundamental elements in democratic life and surrounding them is an affront to democracy itself.

Brasilia, November 10, 2020.
National Association of Newspapers – ANJ “

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