TSE sentences Bolsonaro to ineligibility for eight years

DECISION

Former president is prevented from running for elections until 2030

The majority of ministers of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) condemned, this Friday (30), former president Jair Bolsonaro to ineligibility for a period of eight years. With the understanding, the former president will be prevented from contesting the elections until 2030. The decision can be appealed.

After four trial sessions, the score of 4 votes to 1 against the former president was reached with the vote of Minister Cármen Lúcia. She said that she would accompany the majority for Bolsonaro’s condemnation.

In the minister’s assessment, the meeting was called by Bolsonaro to attack the electoral system and ministers of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and TSE.

Cármen Lúcia stated that the former president gave a “monologue”, without giving the floor to questions from the ambassadors present.

“It was a monologue in which there was self-promotion, disqualification of the Judiciary. Criticism is part of it. What you cannot do is for public servants, in the public space, to make attacks against the ministers of the Supreme Court as if the institution had not been affected,” he said.

The judgment proceeds to the reading of the votes of the Minister Nunes Marques and the President, Alexandre de Moraes, the last ones to be cast.

At the beginning of the session, the minister said that she will accompany the other ministers who cast unfavorable votes for Bolsonaro. She continues reading the vote.

The TSE judges Bolsonaro’s conduct during a meeting held with ambassadors, in July last year, at the Alvorada Palace, to attack the electronic voting system. The legality of the meeting was questioned by the PDT.

According to the understanding already signed, Bolsonaro committed abuse of political power and misuse of the media. The former president held the meeting inside the Alvorada Palace. In addition, the event was broadcast on Bolsonaro’s social networks and on TV Brasil, the public broadcaster of Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC).

In previous sessions, the rapporteur, Benedito Gonçalves, and ministers Floriano de Azevedo Marques, André Ramos Tavares also voted for the conviction.

Raul Araújo opened the divergence and voted to dismiss the action against the former president as he understood that the meeting was not serious enough to generate a condemnation of ineligibility.

“The meeting was not large enough to justify the extreme measure of ineligibility. Speculations and other conclusions are not enough to build the causal link and the legal qualification of the abusive act. Contested behavior leads to the inescapable conclusion of lack of sufficient gravity,” she concluded.

Braga Netto
All ministers who have already voted acquitted General Braga Netto, candidate for vice president on Bolsonaro’s ticket in the 2022 elections. All ministers understood that he had nothing to do with the meeting. His name was included in the process by the PDT.

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