A row erupted Monday over rival turnout figures for massive protests against Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff and her government.
Police in Sao Paulo, Brazil's commercial hub, estimated that anger over corruption drove a million people into the street on Sunday.
But private polling firm Datafolha -- not known for being close to Rousseff's camp -- said it counted only 210,000 protesters.
There's no doubt that Sunday's marches, which also took place in other cities, were a major challenge to a government dogged by scandal.
Rousseff is under pressure over allegations that businesses paid hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks to members of her party.
The alleged graft network was centered round state oil firm Petrobras, which Rousseff used to chair. She has denied wrongdoing.
But the military police in Sao Paolo, who come under a state government led by Rousseff's opponents, were forced to defend their count.
A spokesman said the force based its figure on "maps and aerial images" taken from a helicopter.
This, he said, allowed it to estimate five persons per square meter (yard) on the main Paulista thoroughfare by mid-afternoon.
But Datafolha, owned by the Folha press group, took issue with the police figure, which rose at an rapid rate through the afternoon.
Police said a 240,000 mid-afternoon throng swelled in just 25 minutes to 580,000 and then to a million 35 minutes later at 3:40 pm.
Using people-counters on the ground to back their estimate, Datafolha said there were 188,000 participants at 4:00 pm.
At a previous pro-government demo on Friday, the police conversely put numbers at 12,000 whereas Datafolha gave a count of 41,000.
Sunday's marches were Brazil's largest since June 2013, when more than a million people marched nationwide to protest transport fare hikes and the cost of staging last year's World Cup and next year's Rio Olympics.
Authorities gave no official total count for Sunday's marches, but collated police figures from each state added up to 1.5 million.
A row erupted Monday over rival turnout figures for massive protests against Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff and her government.
Police in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s commercial hub, estimated that anger over corruption drove a million people into the street on Sunday.
But private polling firm Datafolha — not known for being close to Rousseff’s camp — said it counted only 210,000 protesters.
There’s no doubt that Sunday’s marches, which also took place in other cities, were a major challenge to a government dogged by scandal.
Rousseff is under pressure over allegations that businesses paid hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks to members of her party.
The alleged graft network was centered round state oil firm Petrobras, which Rousseff used to chair. She has denied wrongdoing.
But the military police in Sao Paolo, who come under a state government led by Rousseff’s opponents, were forced to defend their count.
A spokesman said the force based its figure on “maps and aerial images” taken from a helicopter.
This, he said, allowed it to estimate five persons per square meter (yard) on the main Paulista thoroughfare by mid-afternoon.
But Datafolha, owned by the Folha press group, took issue with the police figure, which rose at an rapid rate through the afternoon.
Police said a 240,000 mid-afternoon throng swelled in just 25 minutes to 580,000 and then to a million 35 minutes later at 3:40 pm.
Using people-counters on the ground to back their estimate, Datafolha said there were 188,000 participants at 4:00 pm.
At a previous pro-government demo on Friday, the police conversely put numbers at 12,000 whereas Datafolha gave a count of 41,000.
Sunday’s marches were Brazil’s largest since June 2013, when more than a million people marched nationwide to protest transport fare hikes and the cost of staging last year’s World Cup and next year’s Rio Olympics.
Authorities gave no official total count for Sunday’s marches, but collated police figures from each state added up to 1.5 million.
