Candidates arrested for fraud during Brazil’s local elections

Rio De Janeiro, Oct 3 (IANS) Brazil's highest electoral court (TSE) announced on Sunday that 60 candidates had been caught committing electoral fraud that morning, as municipal elections got underway nationwide.

Brazil is voting for the mayors and town councils of all its 5,568 municipalities, with over 144 million voters expected to turn out, Xinhua reported.

According to the TSE, 39 candidates were arrested for carrying out exit polls as voters left the polling station, 11 for distributing propaganda, four for electoral corruption, two for the illegal transportation of voters and four for unspecified reasons.

A total of 815 illegal acts by voters were also detected, leading to 337 arrests. Nearly 1,675 booths also had to be replaced in the first hours of voting.

President Michel Temer voted early at 8 a.m. local time in Sao Paulo. Temer had said he would vote at 11 a. m. local time but the daily O Globo suspected he did so earlier in order to avoid protesters.

Former President Dilma Rousseff voted in Porto Alegre, the capital of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, in a tense atmosphere.