Electoral Court: Rapporteur votes declaring Bolsonaro ineligible
On Tuesday (Jun. 27), Superior Electoral Court Justice Benedito Gonçalves rendered a vote condemning former President Jair Bolsonaro to eight years of ineligibility. If the majority of the Court follows the rapporteur's vote, Bolsonaro will be unable to run in the upcoming 2026 elections.
Following the reading of the rapporteur's position, the trial was temporarily suspended and will resume on Thursday (29), allowing six other justices, including court head Alexandre de Moraes, to cast their votes.
The court is currently examining a case in which the Democratic Labor Party (PDT) accuses Bolsonaro of abusing political power and misusing the media. The party challenges the legality of the meeting held by the former president at the Alvorada presidential palace last July, where he attacked the Brazilian electronic voting system.
Vote
In his statement, Benedito Gonçalves concluded that Bolsonaro disseminated false information to discredit the country’s voting system, exploiting the infrastructure of the Alvorada palace. Furthermore, the event was broadcast on the former president's social media platforms and TV Brasil, a public television station owned by Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC).
"The evidence presented leads to the conclusion that the first defendant [Bolsonaro] was entirely and personally responsible for the conceptualization of the event under scrutiny in this action," stated the rapporteur.
The justice highlighted that Bolsonaro propagated illusions of alleged vote manipulation in the 2020 elections and made claims regarding the lack of auditing of electronic ballot boxes. "Each of these narratives is inherently fallacious," he added.
Gonçalves also endorsed the inclusion of the so-called "coup draft" in the proceedings, a document discovered by the Federal Police during a search and seizure conducted at the residence of former Justice Minister Anderson Torres. The anonymous document proposed declaring a state of defense at the Superior Electoral Court to challenge Lula's victory in the 2022 elections.
"The trivialization of a coup, represented merely by the draft proposal to intervene in the Electoral Court, which aroused no alarm in the former Minister of Justice's residence, is a serious consequence of unfounded attacks on the electoral voting system," he emphasized.
Gonçalves further argued that Bolsonaro "ostensibly violated the duties of the country’s president, as outlined in Article 85 of the Constitution, particularly regarding the guarantee of the exercise of powers and political rights, as well as internal security. He engaged in unjustified direct antagonism with the Electoral Court, seeking to portray himself as a victim and undermine the expertise of the technical body and the integrity of its justices, thereby causing absolute international discredit to the court's performance," he added.
The rapporteur also voted for the acquittal of Braga Netto, the vice presidential candidate on Bolsonaro's ticket. According to Gonçalves, Netto did not attend the meeting and had no involvement in the events.
Defense
During the first day of the trial, Bolsonaro's defense argued that the meeting had no electoral bias and was conducted as an "institutional counterpoint" to propose changes in the electoral system.
According to lawyer Tarcisio Vieira de Carvalho, the meeting took place prior to the election period on July 18, when Bolsonaro was not an official candidate for the 2022 elections. Therefore, in the defender's opinion, a fine would be appropriate as a penalty, but not a declaration of ineligibility.
