TSE judges Lula’s impeachment actions requested by Bolsonaro – 10/18/2023 – Power

The TSE (Superior Electoral Court) begins this Thursday (19) the trial of two actions against the ticket that elected Lula (PT) to the Planalto Palace last year.

The analysis comes two days after the electoral court rejected three cases against Jair Bolsonaro (PL) — and more than three months after the same court declared the former president ineligible.

Both actions against Lula were presented by Bolsonaro’s re-election coalition, which was defeated last year.

As in the case of Bolsonaro, the so-called Aijes (Electoral Judicial Investigation Action) will be judged by the court, which aims to prevent conduct that could affect the equality of the dispute in the election. These actions may result in revocation and ineligibility.

In statements in the files, the deputy electoral attorney general, Paulo Gonet, defended the archiving of the requests. As a result, the expectation of interlocutors at the electoral court is that the cases against Lula will be rejected.

One of the Aijes accuses the PT party of using paid advertising on the internet to “false the truth about the convictions” that Lula suffered in Operation Lava Jato and to “omit pages other than electorally convenient”.

The action argues that, when searching during the elections for the keywords “Lula condemnation”, “Lula Tríplex” and “Lula corruption PT”, Google resulted in a page with advertisements paid for by the PT coalition, which said that he was persecuted and acquitted.

“The fact against which we are protesting, on this occasion, is the use of paid advertising on the internet, promoted with the intention of hiding and/or falsifying the truth about the convictions suffered”, says the piece, signed by lawyer Tarcísio Vieira.

“Paid advertising serves to omit other pages that are not electorally convenient, exposing the voter to electoral advertising in a context other than that legally permitted”, he adds, further stating that the results could deceive “simpler voters”, who would seek unbiased information.

Lula’s defense claims that Bolsonaro’s coalition was unable to demonstrate the untrue nature of the information promoted and did not prove that the link was overlapping with other organic pages on Google.

Furthermore, it states that there is “no irregularity in the paid prioritization of content, as it is not negative advertising”.

The defense piece is signed by Valeska Zanin Martins, wife of STF (Supreme Federal Court) minister Cristiano Zanin, who before joining the court was a lawyer for Lula.

Another action to be judged against Lula claims that the current president used interviews on election day as electoral pulpits and that, therefore, there was abuse of the media.

Lula’s defense claims that there were no acts of electoral propaganda but rather statements not prohibited by law, which did not violate the equality of the conditions of dispute.

Still this Thursday, a thesis presented by the Electoral Justice inspector, Benedito Gonçalves, about lives in official residences of candidates for re-election to the Presidency, governments or city halls should be debated in the TSE.

The topic began to be discussed because Bolsonaro was sued in court for asking for votes in a broadcast made in the library of Palácio da Alvorada, the official residence of the President of the Republic.

Benedito proposed that, from the next elections onwards, the broadcast should take place in a neutral environment, without symbols or objects associated with public power. Furthermore, participation must be restricted to the person holding the position, without the use of public resources. Benedito also defends the recording, in the accountability, of all expenses related to the live.

After the judgment of these two actions against Lula, the TSE will resume the analysis of other interpellations against Bolsonaro.

The president of the electoral court, Alexandre de Moraes, scheduled the beginning of the trial of three other actions against the former president’s ticket for the 24th, for using the celebrations of the Bicentenary of Independence, on the 7th of September last year, to allegedly campaign using public money.

In these actions, the Electoral Attorney General’s Office has already expressed its support for the former president’s ineligibility. The processes were presented by senator Soraya Thronicke (Podemos-MS) and the PDT.

In June, by 5 votes to 2, the TSE declared Bolsonaro ineligible for eight years, due to attacks and lies against the electoral system in a meeting with ambassadors. In practice, even if convicted in the new actions, there would be no practical effect in changing the period of ineligibility.