Bolsonaro out of the polls? TSE decides on the former president’s political future

The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) resumed this Thursday (30) the trial of the action that could result in the ineligibility of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) for eight years. Right at the beginning of the session, Minister Cármen Lúcia, the first to vote this Friday, accompanied the decision rapporteur, Minister Benedito Gonçalves, for the ineligibility of Jair Bolsonaro, excluding Braga Netto from the penalty. She declined to read her extensive vote, but insisted on highlighting only the main fact, the former president’s meeting with diplomats on June 18, 2022.

With that, the TSE formed a majority for the condemnation of the former president. So far, only Minister Raul Araújo has opened a divergence, voting for the dismissal of the action.

Bolsonaro is accused of abuse of power and misuse of purpose for holding a meeting with ambassadors in July last year, in which he criticized the credibility of electronic voting machines.

The fourth and final judgment session of the PDT action against Bolsonaro’s ticket in 2022 began with the vote of Minister Cármen Lúcia. She will be followed by Ministers Nunes Marques and Alexandre de Moraes, President of the Court.

The minister’s statement is enough to confirm the former president’s sentence, who may later appeal to the TSE itself and to the Federal Supreme Court (STF).

With the current score, there is a majority to absolve the vice-presidential candidate, General Walter Braga Netto. The justices understood that he had no participation in the fact questioned by the action.

Bolsonaro says he will appeal to the STF in case of ineligibility

Before this Friday’s session, Bolsonaro had already warned that he will appeal the TSE’s decision to the Federal Supreme Court (STF). He stated that the judgment “has no foundation and no head” and that the TSE has no legal basis to make it ineligible.

“My attorney, Dr. Tarcísio [Vieira], participated in the trial of the Dilma-Temer ticket, and the decisive vote, a minerva, was Gilmar Mendes. He voted for the shelving and said that the electoral justice should not exist to cancel mandates, much less the president. […] It is customary, in Brazil, to see trials for corruption and other things. For the first time, abuse of political power. I will talk to my lawyers and the appeal will go to the STF ”, he said in an interview with Rádio Itatiaia.

Based on Gilmar Mendes’ statement, the former president criticized the impeachment of Deputy Deltan Dallagnol (Podemos-PR), this year, and Fernando Francischini (PSL-PR) in 2018, and that the same may come to pass with other parliamentarians.