Election in Sergipe generated 250 lawsuits.

Valter Lima, from Sergipe 247 - Throughout this year's campaign period, between July 6th and October 3rd, 250 lawsuits were filed in the Sergipe Electoral Court. This averages almost three lawsuits per day. The targets were mostly the press, electoral programs, social media posts, and irregular campaign material. Opposition coalitions and candidates Eduardo Amorim (PSC) and Edivan Amorim (PR) led in filing the lawsuits, with 90 complaints filed each. Governor Jackson Barreto (PMDB) was the target of a large number of these lawsuits.

The bloc of governing coalitions and candidates Jackson Barreto (PMDB) and Rogério Carvalho (PT) filed approximately 70 complaints. The Electoral Public Prosecutor's Office filed more than 40 lawsuits. There are also lawsuits from other candidates such as Betinho (PTN), Mendonça Prado (DEM), Sônia Meire (PSOL), Zé Franco (PDT), André Moura (PSC), Silvia Fontes (PDT), Valmir Monteiro (PSC), and Emerson Ferreira (PT).

As Sergipe 247 showed in two recent reports, throughout this campaign, the press has become the preferred target of lawsuits from candidates. Radio stations Ilha FM, Mix FIM, and 103 FM, as well as their repeaters in the interior, the newspaper Jornal do Dia, the JC itself, the websites 247 and Click Sergipe, radio broadcasters George Magalhães and Carlos Ferreira, and journalists Adiberto de Souza, Gilvan Manoel, and Luís Eduardo Costa were the most frequently sued. In the final stretch of the campaign, last week, Ilha FM and 103 FM were each off the air for 24 hours.

Propaganda

With the start of the election campaign on August 19th, actions against media outlets and journalists decreased, as the free election broadcast time on radio and TV became the focus of the lawsuits. In the legal actions, authored by both Amorim's group and the bloc led by JB, the lawsuits pointed to alleged falsehoods in the election programs and demanded the right of reply. However, there were no granting of requests to reduce the opponent's election broadcast time, nor was there any space allocated for a defense.

From the Electoral Public Prosecutor's Office, the complaints are due to irregular campaigning, including murals, the use of small sound systems, campaign rallies with entertainment, and the improper use of billboards. There were also actions against various profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Most of these actions were filed by Eduardo Amorim and Edivan Amorim.