2023-06-30 17:52:25
Isaac Nóbrega/PR
Former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL)
The Superior Electoral Court ( TSE
) decided this Friday (30), by 4 votes to 1, to make former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) ineligible for the next eight years . In the view of the Court, Bolsonaro committed abuse of political power and misuse of the media by spreading false information about electronic voting machines in a meeting broadcast by TV Brasil, a state broadcaster of the federal government.
With the TSE decision, Bolsonaro is prevented from running in the 2024 municipal elections and the 2026 state and national elections. There is no chance of arrest in this case, however, since the action at the TSE is not a criminal matter.
According to the defense of the former president, the meeting with the ambassadors was an “act of government” and the elections were not on the agenda, nor were there requests for votes or attacks on opponents of the election. Lawyers also claim that Bolsonaro does not act against democracy, but exposes doubts about the system.
Resources
With the conviction of the Electoral Court, Bolsonaro can appeal to the Court itself. The defense of the former president has already said that he will try to reverse the ineligibility.
“If Bolsonaro’s conviction by the TSE is confirmed, two types of appeals will be available from the former president: embargoes of declaration to the TSE itself and an extraordinary appeal to the STF. For both, the deadline is 3 days after the publication of the TSE decision , however, the deadline for an Extraordinary Appeal is interrupted with the opposition of Embargoes de Clarification, being restarted after the publication of the Embargos judgment”, says Antonio Carlos de Freitas Junior, Master in Constitutional Law from the University of São Paulo (USP).
Motions for declaration to the TSE:
The appeal would aim to point out obscurities and contradictions in the decision, seeking to reverse the ineligibility and prepare the ground for a subsequent appeal to the STF.
“The motion for clarification does not have the objective of any type of modification of the judgment. This appeal exclusively aims at correcting a failure of omission, obscurity or contradiction of the text of the judgment. Thus, it has a context more in the sense of “explain me better what that you said in that decision” than “you decided wrong here”, explains the master in Constitutional Law.
Extraordinary appeal in the STF:
In this type of appeal, the defense would argue that the TSE’s ineligibility decision violated constitutional principles. Bolsonaro’s lawyer, Tarcísio Vieira, indicated that he already identifies elements for this appeal, based on the restriction on the right of defense.
“This feature is also not intended to say that the TSE was wrong in judging the former president’s behavior. Such a feature has the function of protecting the Constitution, that is, it would be like saying “with this interpretation of the law, the TSE violated such norm of the Constitution”, says Antonio Carlos de Freitas Junior.
If the defense opts for the motion for clarification, the deadline for the second appeal ceases to count.
Before reaching the STF, the appeal is submitted to the TSE itself, where President Alexandre de Moraes will be responsible for verifying that the formal requirements have been met.
Once the case reaches the Supreme Court, the ministers who participated in the trial at the TSE are not included in the draw to designate the rapporteur, however, they are not prevented from voting on the case when it is taken to the plenary.
The chance of success of the ex-president’s defense is not high. This is because the Supreme Court hardly ever reforms decisions taken by the TSE. In addition, the tendency is for most STF justices to follow the Court’s understanding in the event of an extraordinary appeal.
vote
The Thursday (29) session opened with the dissenting vote of Minister Raul Araújo, who understood that there was no electoral nature in the meeting between Bolsonaro and ambassadors. Then it was the turn of Floriano Marques, who followed the vote of Benedito Gonçalves, rapporteur of the process, and highlighted the former president’s criticism of the electoral system.
Minister André Tavares, on the other hand, stated that the defense’s thesis about there being no diversion of purpose at the meeting was unfeasible. Tavares also criticized Bolsonaro’s speeches at the meeting and classified the statements as “lies”. Shortly after the minister’s vote, the session was suspended with the score at 3-1 for the conviction of the former head of the Executive.
This Friday (30), the trial was resumed and Minister Cármen Lúcia cast the vote that formed the majority for Bolsonaro’s ineligibility. The magistrate voted for the origin in relation to Bolsonaro and judged it unfounded in relation to the former vice-presidential candidate, Walter Braga Netto. She also accompanied the vote of the rapporteur of the case, Minister Benedito Gonçalves.
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