66 arrested for election offenses in Brazil

A total of 66 people were arrested for violations of election rules during Sunday's presidential and gubernatorial runoffs in Brazil, the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) said.

Four and a half hours after polls opened, authorities had registered 293 election-related incidents, most of them were minor, Xinhua reported.

Brazil's eastern state of Rio de Janeiro -- where an evangelical bishop is running against sitting Governor Luiz Fernando Pezao -- reported the most election-day irregularities of 62, and a total of 13 detentions.

Among the most common violations were emitting exit poll data before polls closed, distributing political propaganda, and busing voters to polling stations to cast votes for a particular candidate.

The TSE's third report since voting got underway Sunday also said 1,733 electronic ballot boxes were replaced around the country after the originals malfunctioned, or 0.4 percent of the 420,000 voting machines installed.

Some 142.8 million registered voters in Brazil were expected to cast ballots in a bitterly contested election that pits President Dilma Rousseff of the left-leaning Workers' Party against conservative candidate Aecio Neves of the Social Democracy party.

Voters are also voting for 13 state governors.

--Indo-Asian News service

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