Impeachment of an ally becomes a precedent against Bolsonaro at the TSE – 06/27/2023 – Politics

A 2021 judgment became fundamental to form conviction of the ministers of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) in the process that could make former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) ineligible.

At the time, the court revoked the mandate of one of Bolsonaro’s campaign coordinators in 2018, former deputy Fernando Francischini, who had used social media to spread false information about electronic voting machines.

The action against Francischini is the main precedent in which the TSE establishes the understanding that the dissemination of misinformation about the electoral system promoted by the media can lead a politician to ineligibility.

In 2018, after being elected to two terms in the Chamber of Deputies, Francischini decided to run for state deputy for the PSL of Paraná and was the most voted in the state.

But, on the day of the first round of the election, Francischini opened a live on social networks in which he said that he had identified ballot boxes “that are fraudulent or adulterated”. According to him, these ballot boxes did not accept votes for Bolsonaro.

“We will not accept that a company from Venezuela, that the technology that we do not have access to, defines democracy in Brazil”, he said, in the live, which had 6 million views in just over a month.

“I use my parliamentary immunity here, which still lasts until January, regardless of this election, to bring this complaint.”

Because of this live, the Electoral Public Ministry filed a lawsuit for abuse of political power and authority and misuse of the media, which led the TSE to revoke its mandate.

In his vote, the then Inspector General of Electoral Justice, Minister Luis Felipe Salomão, defended the electronic voting system and said that “the defendant’s statements regarding the electronic ballot boxes in Paraná’s polling stations are absolutely false, to which he attributed the label of ‘frauded’, ‘adulterated’ and ‘seized'”.

It argued that “the exacerbation of political power and the use of social networks to promote unfounded aggressions against democracy and the electronic voting system can configure abuse of political power and undue use of the means of social communication”.

He also refuted other false information disclosed by the deputy, such as that Brazil does not have access to ballot box technology.

“Well, since this Specialized Justice created and developed the electronic ballot box, it would be contradictory to say the least – not to say unrealistic – to say that the Brazilian electoral body would not have access to systems technology”, said Salomão.

“Moreover, the company that produces the ballot boxes is not Venezuelan – which, incidentally, in itself, would not pose any problem if it were true.”

Francischini was impeached by 6 votes to 1 in the TSE, in a judgment that the court considered historic. Minister Edson Fachin, who was on the electoral court at the time, said that what was at stake was “more than the future of a mandate, the very future of elections and democracy”.

At the time, Francischini’s defense argued that he did not put himself in the position of candidate on the live, and therefore could not be punished. He also said that his speeches did not exert “the slightest influence on the election, given that the expectation of votes was consolidated in percentage as indicated in public opinion polls”.

He also stated that he only informed his constituents “of obtaining evidence for the consequent expertise” of the ballot boxes, and that freedom of expression could not be restricted.

In June of last year, Francischini’s impeachment was even suspended by the minister of the STF (Federal Supreme Court) Kassio Nunes Marques, appointed by Bolsonaro to the supreme court. There was, however, a reaction from the other ministers, and the decision was overturned.

This judgment by the Supreme Court was cited in the demonstration by the prosecutor of the Electoral Public Ministry, Paulo Gonet, at the TSE session last Thursday (22), when he spoke out in favor of Bolsonaro’s ineligibility.

He paraphrased Minister Gilmar Mendes’ vote in the case: “The systematic attack on the reliability of electronic ballot boxes cannot be considered tolerable in a democratic State based on the rule of law.”

The content and circumstances of the meeting with ambassadors held by Bolsonaro last year are at the heart of the electoral action that began to be judged by the Electoral Justice. On the occasion, he repeated lies about electronic voting machines and attacked STF ministers.

The event lasted about 50 minutes and was broadcast on TV Brasil. At the time, the government’s Secretariat of Communication barred the press, allowing only vehicles that committed to broadcast the event live. The action against Bolsonaro at the TSE was presented by the PDT.

Experts see Francischini’s precedent as one of the pillars of the action, whose vote by the General Inspector Benedito Gonçalves on the case will be given this Tuesday (27).

“[Antes do caso Francischini] The court was more attentive to more traditional forms of abuse of political power, economic power, authority and the use of the media. These more traditional forms were more linked to the idea of ​​an imbalance in the justice of electoral competition”, says doctor in public law from Uerj (University of the State of Rio de Janeiro) and professor of constitutional law, Ademar Borges.

“But the Francischini case revealed new developments in traditional forms of abuse of power. There, the court already considered that the practice of disinformation against electronic voting machines was also associated with a form of electoral advantage, because the candidate uses this discursive strategy based on on knowingly false information against the electoral process to engage their voters.”

The doctor of law and member of Abradep (Brazilian Academy of Electoral and Political Law) Luiz Fernando Pereira says that “from the Francischini case, the TSE made everything clear, and Bolsonaro paid to see”.

After the impeachment, says Pereira, the TSE put this hypothesis under resolution. “Therefore, when Bolsonaro held the meeting with the ambassadors and said what he said, he already had a risk matrix established by the TSE,” he said.