The revised election laws of 23 August order increased transparency of the district elections tabulation. But a ruling by National Elections Commission (CNE) on 20 September reversed this, making the district count secret. The CNE does this by misinterpreting words in the electoral laws. (Deliberação 94/CNE/2024 de 20 de Setembro.)

The CNE defines a new category called "physical operations" (operações materiais), which is the entire process of physically checking and adding up the polling station results sheets (editais) to obtain the district total, and even writing the final district results sheet (edital). This is carried out by STAE (Secretariado Técnico da Administração Eleitoral, Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration). This is the actual work of doing the district count, and will be done in secret.

Only then is the local elections commission summoned for the formal District or City Tabulation Session (Sessão de Apuramento Distrital ou de Cidade). This is a public ceremony, which must be announced in advance. STAE hands to the election commission already completed results sheets. Party delegates, journalists and observers are given copies, which are also sent to provincial and national elections commission. This ceremony takes place within three days of the voting. Most will be on Saturday 12 October.

The CNE has made the district election commission just a post box, taking and passing on the district editais. There is no discussion. There is no requirement that STAE keeps a record or makes a report of changes or corrections that have been made. In past elections, there is often significant manipulation of the results at district level.