Former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL).| Photo: Joédson Alves/EFE.

The Minister of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) and Corregidor General of Electoral Justice, Benedito Gonçalves, opened this Thursday (19) another action to investigate the campaign for the re-election of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL). The action will investigate alleged abuse of political and economic power and also targets Bolsonaro’s vice-presidential candidate, General Braga Netto (PL).

The request was presented to the Electoral Court by the coalition of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in October, during the second round of the election. The PT’s lawyers question the “carrying out of campaign acts, by the then President, in the premises of the Planalto Palace and the Alvorada Palace, notably the announcement of support raised by his candidacy in the second round dispute”.

The coalition alleges that the former president “made use of all the apparatus
furniture of the public building, as well as his status as the current President of the Republic to publicize his supporters’, thus distorting the purpose of those assets, with the objective of leveraging his candidacy”.

Gonçalves stated that, “in theory”, the facts narrated in the petition can be classified “with the typical figure of the abuse of political power, with sufficient elements to authorize the verification of the facts and their gravity in the context of the 2022 Elections”. The minister gave a five-day deadline for Bolsonaro’s defense to manifest itself.