11.08.2026

As part of a joint educational project of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and the National School of Judges of Ukraine, an online thematic lecture entitled “How Democracy Works in Brazil: A Successful Example of Electronic Voting” was held.

The keynote speaker was Jairo Néia Lima, Professor at the State University of Northern Paraná, PhD in State Law from the University of São Paulo, and Coordinator of the Laboratory of Research in Constitutional and Political Theories (CPOL-LAB).

The event was moderated by Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Galyna Yurovska. The lecture was attended by Judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Viktor Gorodovenko and Oleg Pervomayskiy, judges of the courts within the judicial system of Ukraine, lawyers, prosecutors, academics, lecturers, legal practitioners, postgraduate students of law faculties, students of the Junior Academy of Sciences, and university students.

Opening the event, Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Galyna Yurovska noted that this was the first lecture within the project devoted to the experience of a Latin American country. She recalled that the project was launched in April 2022 with the aim of promoting knowledge about constitutional justice, the activities of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, foreign legal experience, and current challenges in the field of law.

In his presentation, Professor Jairo Néia Lima provided an overview of the constitutional foundations of democracy and the organisation of the electoral process in the Federative Republic of Brazil, where approximately 158 million voters are registered. He focused on the specific features of the country’s federal structure, the electoral systems at the federal, regional and municipal levels, requirements for candidates, terms of office of elected officials, as well as the frequency of general and municipal elections.

Particular attention was paid to the constitutional regulation of electoral rights. He noted that in Brazil, voting is not only a right but also a constitutional obligation for citizens aged 18 to 70. For citizens aged 16–17, persons over 70, and illiterate persons, voting is voluntary.

Professor Jairo Néia Lima described the activities of the electoral judiciary, a specialised component of the judiciary responsible for organising, administering and overseeing the electoral process. According to him, the powers of electoral justice bodies include maintaining the electoral register, registering candidates and political parties, verifying compliance with electoral legislation, monitoring the financial reporting of electoral campaigns, organising voting, adjudicating electoral disputes, counting votes and officially announcing election results. Its principal body is the Superior Electoral Court.

The central topic of the lecture was the operation of the electronic voting system. The speaker noted that electronic voting machines began to be introduced in Brazil in the late 1990s. During voting, a voter enters the candidate’s number, verifies the candidate’s name, photograph, party affiliation and number displayed on the screen, and then confirms their choice.

Biometric data are widely used to identify voters in the country. At the same time, as the scholar pointed out, the voter identification system and the electronic voting machine are functionally separate. Information identifying a person is not linked to information about the vote cast by that person, which constitutes one of the key safeguards of the secrecy of the vote.

The speaker emphasised that electronic voting machines are not connected to the open Internet during voting. Before each election, the software and equipment undergo public testing, technical checks and audits involving information security experts, representatives of political parties, academics and other stakeholders. Final results are transmitted through secure channels using cryptographic mechanisms.

According to Professor Jairo Néia Lima, the advantages of electronic voting include the speed of vote counting, reduced risks of errors and manipulation associated with the manual processing of paper ballots, as well as the possibility of monitoring key stages of the electoral process. He noted that election results usually become known within just a few hours after voting ends.

During the discussion, participants raised questions concerning the protection of the system against hacking and other forms of external interference, ensuring the secrecy of the vote, the use of biometric identification, and the specific features of exercising electoral rights by illiterate persons.

In response to questions, Professor Jairo Néia Lima noted that one of the greatest contemporary challenges facing the electoral process is not only the protection of technical infrastructure, but also countering disinformation and manipulation in the digital environment. According to him, social media, automated accounts, artificial intelligence and content-generation technologies may be used to unlawfully influence the formation of voters’ choices.

The speaker emphasised that before each election, Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court updates the rules governing digital campaigning. According to him, the use of artificial intelligence is prohibited in certain cases, while in others there is a requirement to clearly indicate that the relevant material has been created or modified using such technologies.

Summing up the discussion, Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Galyna Yurovska highlighted the practical value of Brazil’s experience for further scholarly analysis of the development of electoral legislation and the use of digital tools of democracy. She thanked Professor Jairo Néia Lima for his insightful lecture, the participants for the active professional discussion, and the project partners for their assistance in organising the event.

For more details, see the video at the following link: https://youtu.be/ncFE5WclyqI.