Brazilian Judge Suspends Datafolha Poll in Ceará After Campaign Request

A Brazilian judge suspended the release of a Datafolha poll in Ceará state on Saturday, October 3, following a request from the campaign of incumbent Governor Elmano de Freitas. The poll, published earlier that day, was the final survey before the first round of voting on Sunday, October 4. The regional electoral court ordered Datafolha and media group O POVO to immediately stop disseminating the poll results, citing irregularities in the survey's registration. The suspension applies to all media platforms, with a fine of 20,000 reais for non-compliance, and Datafolha has announced it will appeal the decision. The controversy stems from a researcher who was dismissed after being spotted wearing another company's vest during fieldwork on Friday. Datafolha stated the researcher's collected data was excluded from the sample, and the institute defended its quality-control procedures, including GPS tracking and audio verification of interviews.