TSE reserves three sessions for action on Bolsonaro’s ineligibility

Brasilia DF) – The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) has reserved three plenary sessions for the judgment of an electoral investigation lawsuit (Aije) that has former president Jair Bolsonaro as a target and in which the PDT asks that he be declared ineligible. The trial is scheduled to begin next Thursday (22).

Aije is about a meeting organized by Bolsonaro at Palácio da Alvorada with dozens of ambassadors and diplomatic teams, in which he presented accusations without evidence against the electronic ballot box. The PDT alleges that the former president committed abuse of political and economic power by promoting the meeting and attacking the Brazilian electoral process with rumors previously denied by the Electoral Justice, when he was already presenting himself as a pre-candidate for re-election.

The case is reported by the Electoral Inspector General, Minister Benedito Gonçalves. When releasing the case for judgment, he published a report in which he details all the steps of Aije, including the final arguments of the prosecution and defense. The rapporteur has not yet released his own vote.

The judgment of the Aijes tends to be longer in the TSE, as it is necessary, in general, to read a long report on the investigations, by the rapporteur. The session on Thursday (22) should read this report and the oral arguments of the parties and the Electoral Public Ministry (MPE). Each speech lasts up to 15 minutes.

The expectation, too, is that Gonçalves pronounces a long and detailed vote, which should take a second plenary session. Next to the rapporteur, the ministers vote: Raul Araújo, Floriano de Azevedo Marques, André Ramos Tavares, the vice-president of the TSE, minister Cármen Lúcia, minister Nunes Marques and, lastly, the president of the Court, minister Alexandre de Moraes .

Understand

The meeting investigated by the TSE was held in July 2022, when Bolsonaro was already a pre-candidate for re-election. His defense alleges that no irregularity occurred, and that the meeting was an official event of the Presidency of the Republic, which followed all the formal procedures for its realization.

Bolsonaro’s lawyers claimed that he only carried out a “open dialogue”in which “exposed, clearly, bluntly, in simple, easy and accessible language, on a public network, what would be his doubts and the points that, in his opinion, would have the potential to compromise the fairness of the electoral process”.

The Electoral Public Ministry (MPE) argued that Bolsonaro should become ineligible, due to having practiced the abuse of political power and misuse of state media. That’s because the meeting with ambassadors was broadcast and publicized by Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC).

According to the MP’s opinion, Bolsonaro delivered a speech with the aim of discrediting the electoral process in which he would be defeated. The severity is greater because the conduct was performed “in a period close to the elections, conveying notions that have already been demonstrated to be false, without the person represented having mentioned the official denials and explanations constantly given in the past”.

The Electoral Attorney General’s Office (PGE) also argued that the gravity of the discredit in the electoral process, as disseminated by Bolsonaro, can be verified in the coup acts of January 8, when “people convinced that the elections had been rigged” invaded and destroyed the headquarters of the Three Powers of the Republic.

coup draft

Bolsonaro’s defense stated that it was not possible to make any connection between the meeting with ambassadors and the events of January 8, with no connection between the episodes. The lawyers also defended the annulment of evidence inserted in the process with authorization from Gonçalves, among them the so-called draft of the coup, an apocryphal document found in the house of former Minister of Justice Anderson Gomes.

The text is a kind of decree of intervention in the Electoral Justice, and was found in the context of investigations into anti-democratic acts. The rapporteur decided to keep the draft as evidence in the process, claiming that there was a possible connection with the investigations.

The former chief minister of the Civil House, Ciro Nogueira, Flávio Augusto Viana Rocha, former Special Secretary for Strategic Affairs of the Presidency, and Anderson Torres, former minister of Justice and Public Security, were heard as witnesses in the process. Federal police officers Ivo de Carvalho Peixinho and Mateus de Castro Polastro, who met with Bolsonaro the day before the meeting with ambassadors, were also heard.

*With information from Agência Brasil

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