Bolsonaro accumulated crimes in a meeting; understand in 7 points – 06/21/2023 – Power

Former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) begins to be tried by the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) this Thursday (22) for electoral offenses committed by attacking the credibility of the electoral system in presentation to dozens of foreign ambassadors.

The meeting took place on July 18, 2022, at Palácio da Alvorada, broadcast on TV Brasil, shared on social networks. The episode motivated an electoral judicial investigation by the PDT against the Bolsonarist ticket, formed by the former president and his vice-president, General Walter Braga Netto (PL).

If convicted by the TSE, both will be ineligible for eight years from the date of last year’s elections. For specialists in electoral law heard by the Sheetthe interpretation adopted by the court in recent years indicates that this must happen.

1) By what accusations will Bolsonaro’s ticket be judged? The PDT accuses the former president of having committed two electoral offenses:

• Abuse of political power, by using the office of president to promote a meeting aimed at attacking the integrity of the electoral process, which according to the acronym would indicate misuse of the position to unbalance the election.

• Misuse of the media, as the presentation was broadcast on TV Brasil, from the public company EBC (Brazilian Communication Agency), and shared on Bolsonaro’s social networks.

2) What does the action say? The acronym says that Bolsonaro promoted an electoral speech at the meeting, as attacks on the voting system were part of his campaign strategy. For the president of the advisory council of Iprade (Paranaense Institute of Electoral Law), Ana Carolina Clève, the declarations were far-reaching and contributed to making part of the population distrust the elections.

3) What evidence was presented? The video of the presentation, with an indication of the minutes in which Bolsonaro attacked the Electoral Justice, and testimonials. The TSE also accepted the inclusion of the coup draft found at the home of former Minister Anderson Torres (Justice), indicating the context of the strategy to discredit the electoral system.

Doctor in law and member of Abradep (Brazilian Academy of Electoral and Political Law), Luiz Fernando Pereira says that the court signaled to use the evidence in a secondary way, and that it should not be decisive for the result. Otherwise, he says the court would be violating its own understanding of not accepting new facts in the action.

4) What are the aggravating factors of the case? For experts, it is the president’s speech that gives the gravity required by the legislation to make him ineligible.

At the meeting, Bolsonaro cited a Federal Police investigation into a hacker attack on the TSE system to discredit the security of the ballot boxes, attacked court ministers and repeated lying theses about tampering with votes, casting doubt on whether he would accept an unfavorable result.

“We cannot face elections under the cover of mistrust. We want to make sure that the voter vote goes to that person exactly”, he said.

The PDT says that the then president created a climate for “the propagation of all sorts of informational disorder by asserting, on several occasions, that the electronic voting system is receptive to fraud and invasions that, from the perspective of presidential delirium, can compromise the reliability of the results of the lawsuits”.

5) How has the TSE judged similar cases? Since October 2021, when it revoked the mandate of former state deputy Fernando Francischini (União Brasil-PR) for saying in a live that electronic voting machines were rigged in 2018 to benefit the PT, the TSE has been acting rigidly in relation to attacks to the electoral system. Indications to that effect came in resolutions passed for the 2022 elections.

6) What does the ex-president’s defense say? Lawyers claim that Bolsonaro spoke as head of state in an act of government, to “dispel doubts about the transparency of the electoral process”. In addition, they point out that the target audience consisted of people without Brazilian citizenship. A Sheetattorney Karina Kufa said the lawsuit lacks solid elements for an ineligibility.

7) What are the chances of Bolsonaro becoming ineligible? The interpretation made by the TSE since the Francischini case indicates that the court should consider the ineligibility action well founded, experts say. The same interpretation is made by ministers of superior courts heard in a report by Sheet. For the Electoral Attorney General, the punishment should only be applied against Bolsonaro.