Far-right former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was barred Friday from running for office again until 2030 after a panel of judges concluded that he abused his power and solid unfounded doubts on the country’s electronic voting system.
The choice upends the 68-year-old’s political future and sure erases any likelihood for him to regain power.
Five judges on the nation’s highest electoral court agreed that Bolsonaro used government communication channels to advertise his campaign and sowed distrust in regards to the vote. Two judges voted against the move.
“This decision will end Bolsonaro’s possibilities of being president again, and he knows it,” said Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo. “After this, he’ll try to remain out of jail, elect a few of his allies to maintain his political capital, but it is rather unlikely he’ll ever return to the presidency.”
The case focused on a July 18, 2022, meeting where Bolsonaro used government staffers, the state television channel and the presidential palace in Brasilia to inform foreign ambassadors that the country’s electronic voting system was rigged.
In her decisive vote that formed a majority, Judge Carmen Lucia — who can be a Supreme Court justice — said “the facts are incontrovertible.”
“The meeting did happen. It was convened by the then-president. Its content is offered. It was examined by everyone, and there was never a denial that it did occur,” she said.
Alexandre de Moraes, also a Supreme Court justice, said the choice represents rejection of “populism reborn from the flames of hateful, antidemocratic speech that promotes heinous disinformation.”
Talking to reporters in Minas Gerais, Bolsonaro lamented that the trial was unfair and politically motivated.
“We’ll talk with the lawyers. Life goes on,” he said when asked what his next step can be. He called the ruling an attack on Brazilian democracy. “It is a relatively difficult moment.”
Melo said the choice is “not possible” to be overturned. It removes Bolsonaro from the 2024 and 2028 municipal elections in addition to the 2026 general elections. The previous president also faces other legal troubles, including criminal investigations. Future criminal convictions could extend his ban by years and subject him to imprisonment.
Former President Fernando Collor de Mello and current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva were declared ineligible prior to now, but Bolsonaro’s case marks the primary time a president has been suspended for election violations relatively than a criminal offense. Brazilian law forbids candidates with criminal sentences from running for office.
Lula’s eligibility was reinstated by Brazil’s top court following rulings that then-judge and now Sen. Sergio Moro was biased when he sentenced the leftist leader to almost 10 years in prison for corruption and money laundering.
Maria Maris, a 58-year-old engineer in Rio de Janeiro, celebrated the ruling, though said she suspects it could have been politically motivated.
“My fear is that Bolsonaro appeals and runs in the subsequent presidential election, though he was made ineligible today,” Maris said.
Bolsonaro holds a ceremonial leadership role inside his Liberal Party and has traveled around Brazil criticizing Lula, who won last October’s election with the narrowest margin in over three many years.
Hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings on Jan. 8 — one week after Lula took power — in an try and oust the leftist from power. Swift jailing and prosecution of tons of of those that participated had a chilling effect on their rejection of the election’s results. Federal police are investigating Bolsonaro’s role in inciting the rebellion; he has denied any wrongdoing.
The chairwoman of Lula’s Employees’ Party, Gleisi Hoffmann, said on her social media channels that Bolsonaro’s ineligibility offers a teachable moment.
“The far-right must know that the political struggle takes place throughout the democratic process, and never with violence and threatening a coup,” she said. Bolsonaro “will likely be out of the sport because he doesn’t respect the foundations. Not only him, his whole gang of coup mongers has to follow the identical path.”
The trial has reenergized Bolsonaro’s base online, with supporters claiming he’s a victim of an unfair judicial system and comparing his fate to that of former U.S. President Donald Trump, in line with Marie Santini, coordinator of NetLab, a research group on the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro that monitors social media.
Nevertheless, that engagement pales compared to the degrees seen ahead of last yr’s polarizing election.
The expression of Katia Caminha, a 67-year-old retiree in Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana neighborhood, crumbled upon hearing the news that a majority of judges had voted against Bolsonaro. She told The Associated Press that she thought the entire trial had been a “clown show.”
“Every part that has to do with the electoral court is biased and against” Bolsonaro. “That is terrible news for Brazil,” Caminha said.
This week, his supporters showed their continued support with contributions to assist him pay 1.1 million reais (about $230,000) in fines levied by Sao Paulo state’s government for Bolsonaro’s repeated violations of health protocols throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
While Bolsonaro goals to be the correct’s kingmaker, and his endorsement will carry significant heft, his decision to decamp to Florida for several months initially of Lula’s term weakened him, said Thomas Traumann, a political analyst. That’s reflected by the limited right-wing outrage on social media throughout the eligibility trial, and no sign of protests.
“There won’t be a mass movement, because he diminished in size. The proven fact that he went to Florida and didn’t lead the opposition caused him to diminish in size,” Traumann said. “The leader of the opposition is clearly not Bolsonaro.”
Because the trial drew to an in depth, a trumpeter standing outside the electoral court played the song that became a sensation during last yr’s presidential race: “It’s Time for Jair to Go Away.”
