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SAO PAULO, June 30 (AP) — A panel of judges voted Friday to cancel Brazil’s far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro for abusing his power and raising baseless questions about Brazil’s electronic voting system Eligibility to run for office.
The decision bars Bolsonaro from running until 2030, upending the 68-year-old’s political future and potentially eliminating any chance of him returning to power.
The five judges of the country’s top electoral court unanimously found that Bolsonaro abused his power by using government communication channels to promote his campaign and sow doubts about the vote. Two judges voted against it.
“This decision will end Bolsonaro’s chances of becoming president again, and he knows it,” said Carlos Melo, a political science professor at the University of Inspo in São Paulo.
“After that, he will try to avoid prison and elect some allies to preserve his political capital, but he is unlikely to return to the presidency.”
The case centers on a meeting on July 18, 2022, in which Bolsonaro used government workers, state television and the presidential palace in Brasilia to tell foreign ambassadors that the country’s electronic voting system was rigged.
“The facts are beyond dispute,” Supreme Court Justice Carmen Lucia said in the deciding vote that formed the majority.
“The meeting did take place. It was called by the then president. It was public. Everyone checked and never denied that it actually happened,” she said.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the decision represented a rejection of “populism reborn from the flames of hateful, anti-democratic rhetoric promoting heinous disinformation”.
Speaking to reporters in Minas Gerais state, Bolsonaro lamented that the trial was unfair and politically motivated.
“We’re going to talk to lawyers. Life goes on,” he said when asked about his next steps. He called the ruling an attack on Brazilian democracy. “It’s a pretty difficult moment.”
Mello said it was “unlikely” that the decision would be overturned. It excludes Bolsonaro from the 2024 and 2028 municipal elections and the 2026 general election. The former president faces other legal troubles, including a criminal investigation. A future criminal conviction could extend his ban for years and land him in jail.
Former President Fernando Color de Mello and current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have been declared ineligible in the past, but Bolsonaro’s case marks the first time a president has been disqualified. Suspension for election violations, not criminal offenses. Brazilian law prohibits sentenced candidates from running for office.
Brazil’s Supreme Court reinstated Lula after then-judge Sergio Moro, now Senator Sergio Moro, sentenced the leftist leader to nearly 10 years in prison on corruption and money-laundering charges in a biased sentence.
Maria Maris, a 58-year-old engineer in Rio de Janeiro, celebrated the ruling but suspected it might be politically motivated.
“I fear that Bolsonaro will appeal and run in the next presidential election, even though he was disqualified today,” Maris said.
Bolsonaro holds ceremonial leadership positions within his Liberal Party and has criticized Lula across Brazil, who won last October’s election by the narrowest margin in more than three decades.
On January 8, a week after Lula came to power, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in an attempt to oust the leftist.
The swift incarceration and prosecution of hundreds of participants had a chilling effect on their rejection of the election results. Federal police are investigating Bolsonaro’s role in fomenting the uprising; he denies any wrongdoing.
Gleisi Hoffmann, head of the Lula Workers Party, said on her social media channel that Bolsonaro’s disqualification provided a teachable moment.
“The far right needs to know that the political struggle is fought within the democratic process, not through violence and the threat of a coup,” she said. Bolsonaro “will be eliminated because he does not respect the rules. Not only him, but his entire coup gang must follow the same path.”
Marie Santini, coordinator of NetLab, a research group at the Federal University, said the trial had reactivated Bolsonaro’s online base, with supporters claiming he was the victim of an unfair justice system and throwing his The fate is compared to that of former US President Donald Trump. Rio monitors social media.
Yet that level of engagement pales in comparison to levels seen before last year’s polarizing election.
Katia Caminha, a 67-year-old retiree in Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana neighborhood, broke down after hearing the news that a majority of judges had voted against Bolsonaro.
She told The Associated Press that she thought the entire trial was a “clown show.”
“Everything related to the electoral court is biased and directed against Bolsonaro. This is terrible news for Brazil,” Caminha said.
This week, his supporters expressed their continued support and donated to help him pay the 1.1 million reais ($230,000) imposed by the São Paulo state government for Bolsonaro’s repeated health violations during the COVID-19 pandemic. USD) penalty.
Political analyst Thomas Traumann said that while Bolsonaro aimed to become a champion of the right and his support would have a major impact, his decision to travel to Florida for a few months at the start of Lula’s term weakened his strength. This was reflected in the limited right-wing outrage on social media throughout the eligibility trial, and the absence of signs of protest.
“There won’t be a mass movement because he’s downsized. The fact that he went to Florida and didn’t lead the opposition caused him to downsize,” Trauman said. “The leader of the opposition is clearly not Bolsonaro.”
As the trial drew to a close, a trumpeter standing outside the electoral court played the song that became a hit during last year’s presidential campaign: “It’s time for Jarr to go.” (AP)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a syndicated news feed, the latest staff may not have revised or edited the body of content)
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