Workers' Party election in Bahia has allegations of dead voters, and the case must go to court.

Members of the Workers' Party (PT) in Bahia have requested the impeachment of the party's internal election after identifying deceased voters in two cities. The Partido Forte (Strong Party) ticket, defeated in the vote that anointed Tássio Brito—a protégé of Senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA)—as the party's new president in the state earlier this month, also alleges other fraud, estimated to account for around seven thousand votes.

In the Camaçari (BA) election, the ticket claims to have identified five deceased people who participated in the election. In Barro Preto (BA), at least one deceased person voted. Contacts from the PT in Bahia and the Partido Forte ticket did not respond to Estadão 's requests.

The report obtained access to the signed voting lists and death certificates of the deceased voters. The Workers' Party (PT) office in Bahia decided to annul the votes of the deceased, but approved the election in both cities, while the Partido Forte (Strong Party) party intends to appeal nationwide.

When contacted, the Workers' Party of Bahia did not respond to the report's question. In a public statement, the Workers' Party of Camaçari says the errors were due to "large enough headings to take up two or three lines of the list," refutes "any opposition narrative that attempts to tarnish the electoral process," and will contact its legal team to take appropriate action (see the full statement below).

Wagner says that any questions about the electoral process “must be addressed directly with the state directory.”

The internal dispute within the Workers' Party (PT) was marked by tense episodes, with reports of mass membership, accusations of a coup, and even legal action. In 2017, the PT annulled votes in 30 cities in São Paulo due to suspected fraud, including the counting of votes from deceased members.

"This PT state leadership, which has no leadership autonomy and is submissive to offices, to the detriment of the internal diversity that is the party's hallmark, approved demonstrably fraudulent elections in several cities, tarnishing the image of our party and subjecting its internal democracy to shame," said a statement from the Partido Forte ticket.

The Partido Forte (Strong Party) ticket, led by Jonas Paulo, is part of the Workers' Party's dominant trend: Building a New Brazil (CNB). In contrast to the results in key states, the CNB was defeated by Tássio Brito of the Popular Socialist Left (EPS), sponsored by Wagner.

Tássio won with 73% of the vote in the Workers' Party election in Bahia, in which approximately 42,000 members voted. The Partido Forte ticket received approximately 20% of the vote.

The result served to consecrate Wagner as the main PT leader in the state, distancing the political group from the Chief of Staff, Rui Costa, who chose not to support another candidate to avoid a political defeat.

"The message that the current state leadership and the next one, with this ghostly majority, are sending to the PT is clear: in internal party elections, even the dead can vote – and this is considered 'normal.' The 2025 PED (Direct Election Process) in Bahia has become an anything-goes electoral contest," says the internal note from Partido Forte.

The ticket denounces the case of one of the deceased voters as “revolting” – trade unionist Crispim Carvalho da Hora, who died in 2016, appears as one of the people who signed and registered their vote in the election in the Bahian city.

"His alleged participation as a voter constitutes not only electoral fraud, but a lack of respect for his memory and the pain of his family and several other comrades who, like him, helped create the Workers' Party (PT) and the union movement in the state," said the members of the Partido Forte ticket in their request to challenge the election.

In addition to the dead voters in Camaçari and Barro Preto, the list denounces, among other cases, the existence of 91 duplicate voting pages and forged signatures in the vote in Itabuna (BA).

As Estadão reported, internal elections in Bahia have been marked by judicialization. In Itabuna, Workers' Party candidate Nina Germano, a candidate for the party's municipal office, filed a lawsuit against the party after her candidacy was annulled for non-payment.

On Thursday, the 3rd, the Bahia Court granted a favorable decision to the candidate, ordering her name to remain in the race and imposing a daily fine of R$15,000 in case of non-compliance.

In Feira de Santana, another candidate for municipal president also took legal action for the same reason, seeking to guarantee his participation in the election.

In Bahia, the Workers' Party (PT) is considering launching a pure-blood ticket, nominating two senators (Wagner and Rui) in addition to the state governorship. The party hasn't lost a presidential election in Bahia since 2002 and has been undefeated in the state gubernatorial race since 2006.

See the full statement from the PT of Camaçari:

The last Direct Election Process (PED) of the Workers' Party, which took place on July 6th, at the Camaçari Teachers' Union, was marked by great mobilization and participation of our members in the democratic election of the new leadership for the party.

Guided by the internal regulations, national guidelines, and the rules governing the Electoral Elections (PED), the entire oversight process was duly adhered to by the Electoral Organizing Committee (COE). Due to the rain and the crowds, and due to the intense mobilization and participation of members, the PED was also marked by disturbances, delaying lines and exposing older people to intense waiting times.

Coupled with the wait, the crowding, the rush, and the poor lighting, it's understandable that there were unintentional errors in the signatures on the voting lists, with people signing above or below their name, as well as errors in signatures large enough to take up two or three lines of the list. It's important to emphasize that these lists are prepared and issued exclusively by the party's national leadership, and in our view, they urgently need to be updated.

We understand the intense mobilization of the PED, the more than 3,000 members who voted, and the true intention of the electoral process, which was that there was only one registered slate. We refute any opposition narrative that attempts to tarnish our electoral process by using a white-label press, allied with the former mayor of Camaçari, who attempted to delegitimize our party and our electoral process, including by spreading fake news, slander, and defamation. For this reason, we will engage our legal team to take appropriate action.

Therefore, we thank everyone who attended our PED, we stand in solidarity with all those who had their lives and loved ones exposed, and we congratulate the only slate registered and legitimately elected by PT members in Camaçari.