TSE revoked Deltan with irregular advertising precedent – 05/18/2023 – Power

The TSE (Superior Electoral Court) based itself on decisions on fixing campaign advertising in an irregular location and on a precedent involving the internal dispute for the presidency of a court to justify the impeachment of the mandate of Deputy Deltan Dallagnol (Podemos-PR).

The rapporteur at the TSE, Minister Benedito Gonçalves, paralleled the case of the parliamentarian with four other judgments to affirm that the historical understanding of the electoral court and the STF (Supreme Federal Court) in similar cases determines the imposition of judicial sanctions.

One of the references used by Benedito concerns the action analyzed by the Supreme Court in 2010 that annulled the dispute that elected Judge Paulo Pereira to the command of the TRF-3 (Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region).

The law prohibits magistrates who exercised directive functions for two consecutive biennia from assuming, in sequence, the presidency of the court. At the time, Pereira resigned from the vice-presidency of the court five days before completing four years at the helm of management positions.

The Supreme, however, stated that there was fraud to the law “consummated by waiver”. The rapporteur of Deltan’s case, then, stated that the former coordinator of Lava Jato adopted a similar position for having asked for the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office to be dismissed in order to prevent any of the 15 ongoing representations against him from subsequently becoming disciplinary administrative proceedings. .

“In other words, anyone who allegedly resigns from a position (right in principle conferred by the legal system), in order to, in a disguised way, circumvent the prohibition established by law (impossibility of running for election to the position of president of the court), incurs in fraud to the law,” Benedict said.

The magistrate, who was accompanied by the other six members of the court, stated that Deltan defrauded the law by asking for exoneration having against him 15 representations that, later, could become PADs (disciplinary administrative proceedings).

Benedito mentions three other judgments in which the TSE, according to him, “recognized the invalidity of acts that were lawful in principle, but practiced with the intention of frustrating the application of the electoral law”.

One of them deals with the punishment imposed by the electoral court in 2014 on a candidate who removed irregular advertising from a common property, which is prohibited, but soon afterwards fixed the material in another prohibited location.

The other reference is to a process analyzed in 2016 of a candidate with high voting potential who could not run in the election, but nevertheless entered the election.

“The registration of a candidate who is known to be ineligible, a ‘vote puller’, who is replaced by the legend only on the eve of the election (which was previously allowed in article 13 of Law 9.504/97), without thus having time to withdraw his name from the electronic ballot box, thus guaranteeing votes for his replacement.”

The third is about the so-called orange female candidacies. The TSE stated that the registration of women who are not actually contesting the election “to, in fact, disguise the launch of female candidacies”, also represents fraud to the law.

“Thus, whether in accordance with doctrine, legislation or jurisprudence, there is no obstacle for the Superior Electoral Court to recognize, in the practice of a certain act apparently covered by lawfulness, fraud against the law practiced with the purpose of circumventing the foreseen prohibition in the legal norm”, said Benedito.

The minister was the only one to present his position on the Deltan situation. After reading his vote, the others just agreed with the position and the conclusion of the analysis of the case lasted about one minute.

Deltan claimed that the trial was unfair and that he lost his mandate because he fought corruption when he was coordinator of the Lava Jato task force.

“I was impeached for revenge. I was impeached because I dared to do what is most difficult in Brazil: to face the corruption system”, he said on Wednesday (17), in a speech alongside parliamentarians, including deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP ), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

Of the 7 votes against, 3 were from ministers appointed by Bolsonaro: Kassio Nunes Marques, Carlos Horbach and Sergio Banhos.

Deltan was elected with more than 344 thousand votes for Paraná.

The state’s Regional Electoral Court confirmed that his vacancy will be occupied by Itamar Paim (PL), a pastor from Paranaguá, who had 47,000 votes.

Podemos defended that Luiz Carlos Hauly replace Deltan, but the PL argued that he had not reached the minimum electoral quotient and claimed the vacancy. The request was confirmed by the Electoral Justice of the state. With that, PL should reach one hundred deputies.

The Chamber has yet to declare the former prosecutor’s official loss of mandate. The current rule determines that it is not up to the House to analyze the merits of the court’s determination, only to comply with the order without the possibility of reversing the loss of mandate.

Despite this, in these situations, the Legislature usually follows a formal and bureaucratic rite after receiving the notification and opening a period, usually five days, for the deputy to manifest.

The procedure must be conducted by the Internal Affairs of the Chamber, currently headed by Deputy Domingos Neto (PSD-CE). After Deltan presents his defense, the rapporteur prepares a report and presents it to the Board of Directors for the official declaration of loss of mandate.

Thus, there is no forecast for a vote in plenary or some kind of debate in the House on the TSE’s decision.