RIO DE JANEIRO тАФ BrazilтАЩs elections chief ordered the head of the countryтАЩs highway police to answer allegations that he had ordered traffic stops, particularly of buses transporting voters to the polls, in an effort to suppress turnout in SundayтАЩs presidential election.
There were dozens of reports on social media on Sunday that federal highway agents were stopping vehicles and questioning people in several states across Brazil. Such stops appeared to violate orders from election officials on Saturday to halt any traffic stops on Election Day that could hinder peopleтАЩs efforts to vote.
Alexandre de Moraes, a Supreme Court justice who leads BrazilтАЩs election agency, issued an order to the head of BrazilтАЩs federal highway police, calling on the official to provide proof that his officers were not violating election rules to benefit President Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right incumbent.
In the order, Mr. Moraes included a link to a tweet from a person claiming that the highway police had set up a roadblock in the northeastern city of Cuit├й and were not letting people pass. тАЬItтАЩs already driving away the population of the countryside!тАЭ the tweet said. BrazilтАЩs northeast is a leftist stronghold.
On Sunday afternoon, Mr. Moraes told reporters that election officialsтАЩ initial investigation found that the stops delayed the buses, but they all still reached their intended polling stations. тАЬWe didnтАЩt have any voters who didnтАЩt vote because of the operations,тАЭ he said.
Silvinei Vasques, the highway police chief, responded to Mr. MoraesтАЩs order to halt Election Day traffic stops, saying that the highway police would not target public buses. But, he added, the police would continue to conduct stops because, he said, Mr. MoraesтАЩs order did not apply to all federal highway operations.
As of Sunday afternoon, the federal highway police had stopped more than 550 buses across the country, according to a federal highway officer with access to internal data who spoke on condition of anonymity. On Sunday, Oct. 2, in the first round of voting, the highway police stopped nearly 300 buses, according to the officer.
A post on Mr. VasquesтАЩs official Instagram account on Saturday urged people to vote for Mr. Bolsonaro, according to O Globo, one of BrazilтАЩs biggest newspapers. The kind of message he posted automatically disappears from Instagram after 24 hours and was no longer visible on Sunday. Mr. Vazques had previously posted various photos with Mr. Bolsonaro.
Thomas Thaler, 45, a computer programmer, said his wife gave up on voting after her bus got stuck in traffic and then was stopped by highway police on the way to vote in Recife, a large city on BrazilтАЩs northeastern coast. She eventually exited the bus and took a different bus back home. She said she had planned to vote for Mr. da Silva.
Jessica Sousa, 22, a student, said she was stuck in traffic near Cuit├й in BrazilтАЩs northeast and then eventually questioned by the highway police, who requested her I.D. and asked about her plans. She eventually managed to get to a polling station and vote for Mr. da Silva.
