Unanimously, TSE rejects actions against Lula and Alckmin

Elections 2022

Ministers judged two investigative actions presented by Bolsonaro that called for the impeachment and ineligibility of elected officials

Brasilia DF) – The TSE (Superior Electoral Court) rejected two actions calling for the revocation and ineligibility of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Geraldo Alckmin (PSB) for abuse of economic power and misuse of the media in the 2022 elections.

The Electoral Court judged two investigative actions presented by former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and the coalition “For the Good of Brazil”, formed by the Republican, PP (Progressive) and PL (Liberal Party) parties.

In the first action judged, the authors claim that Google favored sponsored content favorable to Lula in its search when searching for keywords such as “Lula condemnation”, “Triplex Squid” It is “Lula corruption PT”. The coalition also argues that Lula and Alckmin abused economic power and the media, promoting “fraudulent news” for “omit information from the electorate”.

The Deputy Attorney General for Electoral Affairs, Paulo Gonet Branco, defended the dismissal of the request in his opinion presented this Thursday. He stated that the TSE has already recognized the legality of the type of boost addressed in the action.

In his vote, the rapporteur, Minister Benedito Gonçalves, defended the termination of the process without resolving the merits and the dismissal of the request for impeachment and ineligibility of Lula and Alckmin. He stated that it is not possible to identify seriousness in the act and that it was not possible to identify abuse of economic power and misuse of the media by elected officials. The vote was followed by the other ministers of the Electoral Court.

“Having exhausted all the evidence on the subject, the “hiding of pages” for “electoral convenience” was not demonstrated. The target content was not shown to “false the truth.” It was not demonstrated that hiring the ad was capable of changing the operating pattern of Google Ads. The fact is that investigators were never close to proving the alleged manipulation of the electorate”,

says part of the vote.

During the trial, the president of the TSE, minister Alexandre de Moraes, stated that it is necessary to discuss the issue of digital boosting. He indicated what he calls “electoral fraud” in some cases, saying that there is manipulation of the electorate for a certain candidate.

Moraes also defended that the issue be analyzed and regularized by the Electoral Court. According to him, the discussion would be carried out by the National Congress in the Fake News PL, but “unfortunately it is stopped”. He accompanied the rapporteur as he understood that there was no misuse of the purpose in the advertisements.

The 2nd action deals with an alleged practice of improper use of the media. In it, Bolsonaro and the “For the Good of Brazil” coalition accuse Lula of spreading irregular electoral propaganda with supposed support from the media to ask for votes and reach voters in a massive way.

The then candidate would have given an interview to journalists on the day of the 1st round, on October 2nd. The accusation states that the coverage of the PT member’s speech marked a breach of equality between candidacies, since, precisely on the day of the vote, Lula had more advertising time than his opponents.

The defense of Lula, Alckmin and the Brasil da Esperança coalition says that, in the aforementioned interview, Lula did not promote campaign action or votes. It states that he exercised his freedom of expression and expressed his “happiness” in being able to exercise their right to vote. Lawyer Miguel Filipe Pimentel Novaes says that Bolsonaro also carried out similar conduct on the day of the election.

The MPE (Public Electoral Ministry) declared that the action was unfounded, as it considered that there was no electoral propaganda prohibited by the then candidate.

The rapporteur voted for the same understanding and defended the dismissal of the action and the requests made by Bolsonaro’s coalition. He stated that it is common for press vehicles to be present when candidates vote and that Bolsonaro made similar statements on election day. Again, his vote was unanimously followed by the other ministers.

*With information from O Politics

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