Oct 26, 2020

 On Monday, October 26, the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) and the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly support the fight against disinformation in the electoral process, focusing on information related to sanitation actions in Brazilian cities.

In August 2019, TSE created the Program to Combat Misinformation in the 2020 Elections. The project aims to address the negative effects caused by misinformation in the electoral process. As a result, the BNDES reinforced its purpose of collaborating with the Court to implement concrete measures to tackle misinformation and identify actions of economic and social interest to the community and decision makers, especially those related to sanitation quality in Brazil, during the 2020 Elections.

BNDES’s president Gustavo Montezano emphasized that the partnership will expand its reach to include all voters in a safe and assertive manner, through BNDES website and other digital tools, in order to provide information on the country's sanitation situation, so that voters may have an accurate view of the population’s low access to a basic right, which is the responsibility of municipalities.

The partnership between BNDES and TSE aims to promote efforts to engage all those involved in the 2020 Elections, including communities, candidates and other interested parties, providing content focused on sanitation data, among other elements of the economic, social and urban infrastructure.

For the TSE’s president, Minister Luís Roberto Barroso, the union of efforts between the BNDES and the Electoral Court to ensure that voters have access to accurate news and information meets the interest of the community in the electoral process, allowing voters to exercise their right to vote in a conscious and informed manner. The partnership will last until the end of 2021.

Ensuring universal access to sanitation

The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) supports the goal of providing universal access to sanitation in Brazil by structuring public concessions projects and financing water and sanitation companies, currently guided by the new Basic Sanitation Legal Framework, sanctioned this year by the federal government.

According to the National Sanitation Information System (Snis, 2018) and the Trata Brasil Institute, more than 100 million people do not have access to sanitation in the country and 35 million do not have access to treated water in their homes.

About TSE - The Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the highest body of the Electoral Justice, plays a key role in the construction and exercise of Brazilian democracy. Its main competencies are established by the Federal Constitution and the Electoral Code (Law No. 4,737, dated July 15,1965). The TSE acts together with regional electoral courts (TREs), which are directly responsible for conducting the electoral process in the states and municipalities.

The Court is composed of seven ministers: three are members of the Supreme Federal Court, two of the Superior Court of Justice and two represent the legal profession – lawyers with recognized legal knowledge and reputation. Each minister is elected for a two-year term, and re-election is prohibited after two consecutive terms. This rotation of electoral judges aims to ensure the apolitical character of the courts, in order to guarantee equality in the elections.

The TSE is chaired by a minister from the Federal Supreme Court (STF). Currently, the President is Minister Luís Roberto Barroso. The vice-president is Minister Luiz Edson Fachin