Operação Eleitor Fantasma executes warrants in Pernambuco against alleged fraudulent electoral transfer scheme

The measures were authorized by the Regional Electoral Court of Pernambuco (TRE-PE) and carried out by teams of federal police officers at residential and institutional addresses, including premises at the City Hall headquarters and public bodies related to those being investigated.

The investigations aimed to locate and seize cell phones, computers, notebooks, proof of address, registration or electoral transfer applications, lists, notes and other documents or devices potentially related to the facts investigated.

According to the PF, the scheme would have involved attracting voters residing in other municipalities to transfer their electoral registration cards to the investigated location, although, in theory, they did not have a link that would justify changing their electoral domicile.

To make the transfers viable, those investigated would have received personal documents and photographs from voters, prepared falsified proof of residence and filed the respective requests through the institutional network of the municipal Executive Branch. Evidence of coordinated action for the insertion and ratification of information in the electoral system is also found.

Until the last update of this report, the city of Belém de Maria did not take a position on the operation. The name chosen for the action refers to the allegedly fraudulent nature of the documents that would have been used to inform the electoral transfer requests.