This doesn’t happen during elections
So what’s to prevent the guy from skipping the country before the police can arrest him?
Election law keeps son who killed mom free
A Brazilian law designed to ensure fair elections has kept police from arresting a 23-year-old law student who confessed to hiring hitmen to kill his mother.
Adriano Saddi Lima Oliveira told police he paid 40,000 reais ($18,433) to hitmen who killed his mother Marisa, a real estate tycoon, several months ago, a police investigator told local TV. Oliveira told police his mother was squandering his inheritance going out with her boyfriend.
Police wanted to arrest him but were unable to do so because of a law that prohibits anybody from being arrested five days before and two days after an election, unless they are caught in the act of committing a crime.
The law aims to curb heavy-handed tactics — like a local political chief trying to hang onto power by having his opponents arrested on election day and locked up until polls close.
Brazil holds general elections on Sunday and police say Oliveira will be arrested next week.
The law of unintended consequences reigns supreme.
It also says a lot about the political culture of some of these countries that laws like this even exist.
I found it interesting, in a story in my local paper, that Brazilian law also requires participation in elections – and citizens can be fined if they don’t have an adequate excuse for not participating.
No wonder Dvorak likes it down there…
#1 You can’t be arrested but your crime will be recorded and (unless you flee) police you proceed to arrest you after the elections. The law is actually very well thought.
#2 The fine is very cheap, people in Brazil vote because they believe is a important thing to do, not because of the money.
That’s a very big “unless.” So what exactly is the incentive for somebody who would have otherwise been arrested for a crime to stick around and wait for it?
#5 There is no incentive, but the law prevents the arrest of innocent people by political bosses who wants to cheat the elections.
It still seems like a “throw the baby out with the bath water” type of law.
4 …people in Brazil vote because they believe is a important thing to do….
I wish that were true of people in the US.
One second Fábio…
“people in Brazil vote because they believe is a important thing to do…”
Sorry, but people in Brazil vote because they have to. Otherwise you cannot work for the government, you cant get a passport and you cant study at a federal university.
Voting is required because otherwise poor people would not vote and some of the politicians depend on them to get elected.