With 3 votes to 1 for Bolsonaro’s ineligibility, TSE postpones trial to Friday (30)

Brasilia DF) – With the score of 3 to 1 for the ineligibility of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), the ministers of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) suspended the judgment of the Electoral Judicial Investigation Action (Aije) against the former president, accused of abuse of political power and use undue use of the media, by the PDT.

The president of the TSE, Alexandre de Moraes, had reserved three sessions to analyze the case, but the ministers will need one more day to cast their votes.

The fourth session of the judgment will take place this Friday (30), during the closing ceremony of the first semester of the Judiciary, scheduled to start at 12 pm. So far, four of the seven ministers have voted. The case’s rapporteur, Benedito Gonçalves, and ministers Floriano Marques and André Tavares took a stand for Bolsonaro’s ineligibility for eight years and the acquittal of Walter Braga Netto. Raul Araújo voted to reject the PDT action.

The next to vote are Cármen Lúcia (vice president of the TSE), Nunes Marques and Alexandre de Moraes, president of the court.

Accusations against Bolsonaro

The former president is investigated for the attacks he made on the Brazilian electoral system during a meeting with ambassadors, at the Palácio da Alvorada, in July 2022. The accusation is of abuse of political power and misuse of the media.

The action under analysis is authored by the PDT. The legend alleged that the former president attacked, at the event with ambassadors, the TSE, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and their ministers, and stated, again without presenting any evidence, that the results of the 2022 general elections proclaimed by the Electoral Justice they would not be reliable.

In addition, the PDT also argues that there was a violation of the principle of isonomy between the candidacies, configuring an abuse of political power the fact that the meeting took place in the official residence of the Presidency of the Republic and was organized through the official apparatus of the Planalto Palace. and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The trial so far

Minister Benedito Gonçalves, the case’s rapporteur, voted to make Bolsonaro ineligible until 2030. Gonçalves considered that the evidence shows that the former president was “fully responsible for the meeting with ambassadors”.

The magistrate declared that Bolsonaro “adopted a political-electoral strategy based on serious misinformation regarding the electronic voting machines and the performance of this Court [Superior Eleitoral]”. According to Gonçalves, the then President of the Republic used his “position of head of state to degrade the electoral environment”.

Afterwards, Raul Araújo Filho disagreed with the rapporteur and voted for the acquittal of the ticket. The minister understood that, without the inclusion of extra facts in the action, such as the draft of the coup, the doubts raised by Bolsonaro against the polls do not have the necessary gravity to configure ineligibility.

“I understand that the requirement of sufficient gravity does not exist, remembering that a good part of the speech I recognize as normal, except for the fact that it characterized undue electoral propaganda”

said the minister in his vote.

Floriano de Azevedo Marques followed the rapporteur and voted for Bolsonaro’s ineligibility for eight years. The minister considered that, at the event held for ambassadors, the “abuse and misappropriation”.

“There was a deviation of purpose insofar as the investigated person used his skills as head of state to create an apparent diplomatic meeting with the objective of responding to the TSE and building a candidate persona, making use of official means and instruments, including communication, to reach its real recipient, the voter”

considered the minister.

For Floriano Marques, there was still “abuse of political power, as the investigated mobilized all the power of the president to immolate his electoral strategy for his own benefit, acting in an abnormal, immoral and serious manner due to the premises and the consequences that would be seen”.

Then André Tavares also expressed his condemnation of the former president to ineligibility. The minister even mentioned that Bolsonaro questioned the Brazilian electoral system at least 23 times, in 2021 alone. According to Tavares, it is unfeasible for the Electoral Justice to ignore the facts. “It is possible to verify unfounded attacks that were based on rumors”said the minister.

“There is not only the mere lack of rigor in certain proclamations, but the unequivocal falsehood perpetrated in this communicational act, with inventions, severe distortions of reality, facts and empirical and technical data, even characterizing a delirious narrative, with harmful effects in democracy, in the electoral process, in the popular belief in conspiracies about the system of tabulation of votes”

declared

Here’s how the score looks so far:

• Benedito Gonçalves (rapporteur): in favor of Bolsonaro’s ineligibility for eight years, starting in 2022;
• Raul Araújo Filho: against ineligibility;
• Floriano de Azevedo Marques: in favor of Bolsonaro’s ineligibility for eight years, starting in 2022; It is
• André Ramos Tavares: in favor of Bolsonaro’s ineligibility for eight years, starting in 2022.

“Act of Government”

The defense of the accused argued that, in the meeting with the foreign ambassadors in July 2022, an “act of government” was practiced, insusceptible of judicial control, from the perspective of the “political end” and sovereignty. According to the defense, there is no electoral act to be investigated, since the meeting did not take care of elections, there was no request for votes, attack on opponents, as well as there was no comparative presentation of candidacies.

The lawyers claim that the event was included in the official agenda of the President of the Republic, previously informed to the public, and that the bad faith of certain sectors of the press meant that the coverage of the meeting was treated as “a proposal to improve the democratic process as if it were a direct attack on democracy”. According to the defense, the event, in fact, was “an invitation to continued public dialogue for the permanent and progressive improvement of the electoral system and republican institutions”.

*With information from Metrópoles

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