Dispute without agreement between Sila Câmara (Republicanos-AM) and Eli Borges (PL-GO)| Photo: Reproduction/ Chamber of Deputies

The evangelical bench in the National Congress was unable to choose the new president of the group this Thursday (2). The election, which took place behind closed doors in one of the plenary sessions of the Chamber of Deputies, was annulled by leader Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-RJ), after discussions, threats of judicialization and inconsistency in the sum of votes.

This was the first time that the caucus held an election since its foundation in 2003, since at other times there was always consensus around a single name. The federal deputies Silas Câmara (Republicanos-AM), Otoni de Paula (MDB-RJ), Eli Borges (PL-TO) and Senator Carlos Viana (PL-MG) were running in the dispute. However, Otoni and Viana gave up the dispute on the eve of the election.

The group tried to reach an agreement right at the beginning of the meeting between the two pastors Silas Câmara and Eli Borges, offering a rotation in the presidency. The first years of the new legislature would be under the command of Câmara and then Borges would take office, but he declined the suggestion.

When opening for voting, through printed ballots, Sóstenes informed that in the count there was divergence between the number of votes and the number of parliamentarians present. “We had some who, because they thought the name was on the list, cast their votes. As a result, my decision was to nullify the election at that time and call a new meeting for the second half of February,” he said.